What happens to a professional corporation's permit if the licensed professional retires?

A professional corporation's certificate of authorization is generally tied to having an active, licensed professional in good standing responsible for its practice. When that professional retires and there's no other licensed shareholder to take over, the corporation's permit is typically at risk of lapsing or being revoked by the governing body, since the regulator's whole basis for authorizing the corporation was the professional's active licence.

What happens next depends on the structure in place before retirement. If another licensed colleague is already a shareholder, the corporation can often continue with that person taking over responsibility, subject to notifying the governing body. If the retiring professional was the sole licensed shareholder, the corporation will usually need to wind down its regulated practice, transfer it, or be dissolved, and non-voting shareholders (such as a family member, where permitted) don't have a path to keep it operating on their own. Because this can affect income continuity and practice value, it's worth planning the transition — through a shareholders' agreement, a practice sale, or bringing in a successor — well before retirement, not after.