A spouse or family member holds shares. What class, and what do the articles say?

The share classes matter more than the names

When family members hold shares, the interesting question is not who is on the register but what class they hold and what those classes are defined to do. That definition lives in the articles.

Written once, referred to rarely

Share classes are set up at incorporation and then almost never re-read. The arrangement described to your lawyer at the time and the arrangement written into the articles are usually the same thing, but the only way to know is to read them.

This is a lawyer and CPA conversation

Anything involving family shareholdings sits across corporate law and tax at once. The check will show you what your articles say. What it means for your family is a professional conversation, and it is a shorter one when you bring the reading with you.

How to check yours

The PREC Articles Health Check is free. You upload or paste your articles of incorporation and it reads them against both regimes that govern a PREC: the RECO registration conditions in Ontario Regulation 536/20, and the Canada Revenue Agency rules that decide how the corporation is taxed.

You get a Red, Yellow or Green rating for each regime, with every requirement named and what was actually found in your text. There are no forms to fill in.

Your articles are analysed in your browser. The document is never uploaded, stored, or sent to Capital Toolkit.

What it is, and what it is not

The Health Check produces a drafting-quality hint from the article text you provide. It is a starting point to bring to a qualified lawyer and CPA, not a legal finding that your corporation qualifies as a PREC, and not tax advice. Always have a professional review before you rely on or file anything.

It does not replace your lawyer or your accountant, and it is not meant to. It is meant to make the conversation with them shorter and sharper: you arrive knowing where your articles stand and which protections need attention, instead of paying for that discovery from scratch.

If you want the full analysis

The rating and the list of which protections are present or missing cost nothing. What is paid for is the PREC Deep Dive at $1,000 CAD: the full clause-by-clause written analysis of what is wrong, why it matters, and what to raise with your lawyer. HST is added at checkout.