A recent survey of Canadians found that only 12% of Canadians plan to leave a legacy gift and a third of Canadians haven’t thought about it yet or are undecided. If you want to avoid taxes and leave more money for your family, please speak with your financial planner about a charitable gift.
A charitable gift can include your RRSP’s/RRIF’s and locked in RRSP’s/LIF’s. The key here is to ensure you have the correct beneficiary designations on registered money. How you do this depends on your situation.
If you want your spouse to be the beneficiary of your registered money, it’s important to ensure their future is secured by leaving your registered money to them, so it passes over tax-free to your survivor, and this includes common law spouses as well.
If you don’t have a surviving spouse, then you can consider naming your favourite charities the beneficiaries of this account. In general, whatever amount you redirect to charity is the amount to receive a charitable tax credit, significantly reducing your income tax bill, at your death.
If you do have a spouse, then consider naming the charity the contingent beneficiary of your registered money. This way, if something happens to you and your spouse, then the money can go directly to charity.
Carefor has partnered with the Donor Motivation Program. Throughout the year, we will host sessions on how you can save taxes, leaving more money for your family. If you would like to secure a complimentary seat, please let us know wknechtel@carefor.ca.