Be sure to designate a beneficiary for your RRSP registered savings plan.
If you are like most Canadians, you won’t worry about your RRSP until next year. But there is one important long-term issue to resolve now if you haven’t already done so.
That is designating a beneficiary for your plan.
If one hasn’t been named, and you die before the plan matures, the full value of the plan is added to your income and taxed in the year of your death.
If your spouse is the named beneficiary, the funds are taxable to your spouse but can be deferred if transferred to your spouse’s RRSP account.
A child or grandchild can also be designated as beneficiary and the funds can be transferred to an RRSP or an annuity in the child’s name.