With Greg Rozdeba (Co-Founder & CEO, Dundas Wealth) & Martin Ochwat (COO, Dundas Wealth)
You bought a policy when you had your first kid, or when you bought a house. It made you feel responsible. Protected. And for your family, it is — that part's real.
In Episode 6 of Keep What You Build, Martin Ochwat sits down with Greg Rozdeba, Co-Founder & CEO of Dundas Wealth, to ask the question most business owners never get asked: what happens to your business when you're gone? Your partner. Your corporate debt. The 60% of revenue you personally bring in. None of that is what your personal policy was built to cover.
Greg's opening line sets up the whole episode: almost every business owner he sits down with has done "the responsible thing" — $500K–$2M in personal term life, maybe group benefits, maybe a mortgage rider. They feel covered. Then he asks one question.
"I ask: 'What happens to your business if you're gone tomorrow?' And there's usually a long pause."
Personal insurance pays your beneficiary — your spouse, your kids. It does not fund a buy-sell agreement, cover a corporate loan you personally guaranteed, replace the revenue your business depends on you for, or pay the tax bill the CRA sends your estate. If the business collapses because you're gone, your family loses twice: the income the business generated, and the value it was supposed to have.
Greg walks through each gap with real numbers.
Your policy pays your spouse — not your business partner. On a $2M business split 50/50, your partner owes your estate $1M with no funding source. Fix: corporate-owned life insurance earmarked for the buy-sell, roughly $150–200/month for $1M of coverage.
The line of credit, the lease, the equipment financing — your guarantee doesn't disappear when you do. On a $500K personal policy with $300K in guaranteed corporate debt, your family collects $200K instead of $500K unless it's covered separately.
If you generate 60–70% of the business's revenue, that revenue doesn't survive you. Key person insurance buys the business 12–24 months of runway to replace it — without it, the business the family thought was worth $2M can be worth nothing within six months.
At death, the CRA treats your corporate shares as sold at fair market value. A business started with $10K now worth $1.5M can trigger a $1.49M capital gain — and roughly $350–375K in tax the estate has to find, on top of everything else.
Greg walks through a composite profile: a 45-year-old incorporated owner, business worth $1.5M, a 50/50 partner, $400K in personally guaranteed debt, 60% of revenue self-generated, $300K in retained earnings. The typical starting point is a $1M personal term policy and group benefits — nothing corporate-owned. Here's what actually closes the gap:
Term life, personally owned — stays exactly as-is for the family.
Term life, corporate-owned — roughly $120/month.
Term life, corporate-owned — roughly $65/month.
Term life, corporate-owned — roughly $80/month.
Whole life, corporate-owned — roughly $350/month.
"For roughly $600 a month — paid by the corporation, a deductible business expense in most cases — this business owner goes from exposed to fully covered. Without it, we're talking about a potential $2M problem. For $600 a month."
The corporation pays for it, not you personally. $600/month to protect $2M in exposure isn't an expense — the real question is whether the business can afford not to have it.
Coverage gets more expensive every year you wait, and a health change can take you out of qualifying entirely. The cheapest time to buy is while you're healthy — which is now.
It's the opposite. Large companies can absorb a key person loss. Small companies, where one person generates most of the revenue, are the most fragile — and the most exposed.
What's your business worth? Do you have a partner? What debt have you personally guaranteed? What share of revenue do you generate?
Pull your existing policies. Who's the beneficiary? Is any of it corporate-owned? For most owners: everything is personal, nothing is corporate.
Sit down with someone who specializes in business insurance — not your bank, not your group benefits provider — and see the full gap in one picture.
Personal insurance and business insurance are two completely different things. Having one doesn't mean you have the other — and the gap between them could cost your family, your partner, and your employees everything.
You can book a free strategy call with Dundas Wealth below. We'll show you your full picture, personal and corporate side by side, and tell you honestly where the gaps are.
Book a free strategy call with Dundas Wealth. We'll review your personal and corporate coverage side by side, flag the gaps — partner buyout, corporate debt, key person, deemed disposition tax — and tell you honestly what it would cost to close them.
Book Your Free Strategy CallFree. No commitment. Bring your accountant if you'd like.