10/12/2026
💸 What if CRA wasn’t the biggest beneficiary of your estate?
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Parker. They’ve built a $2M RRSP/RRIF and want to leave something meaningful to their family and to the causes they care about.
Without a plan, here’s what happens at the second passing:
🏛️ About $1.02M goes to CRA in tax
👪 About $982K goes to their family
đź’š $0 goes to charity
Why? Because an RRSP/RRIF is treated as cashed out at death, and the whole balance is taxed in one year at top rates.
With a little planning, it can look very different 👇
✅ Name a charity on about $1.9M of the RRIF. The donation tax credit can wipe out nearly all of the estate’s tax.
âś… Use tax-free life insurance to replace what the family gives up.
The result in our example:
👪 The Parker family receives about $1.09M
đź’š Charity receives about $1.9M
🏛️ CRA receives about $14K
Same estate. A very different outcome. Swipe through to see each step 👉
CRA doesn’t have to be the default beneficiary. A little planning lets you choose who gets what.
đź’¬ Curious how this could look for your family? Send us a message.