by Frank Restorick | Oct 22, 2026 | Life Insurance
A RRIF and a LIRA are not rivals you pick between. They sit at different stages of the same road. A LIRA is where locked-in pension money waits and grows, with no contributions and no ordinary withdrawals. A RRIF is an income account that pays you out, and it normally...
by Frank Restorick | Oct 21, 2026 | Life Insurance
You can take money out of a First Home Savings Account (FHSA) at any time, but the tax treatment depends on why you take it. A qualifying withdrawal to buy or build your first home in Canada is tax-free. Anything else is a taxable withdrawal, added to your income for...
by Frank Restorick | Oct 20, 2026 | Life Insurance
You can take money out of your TFSA at any time, for any reason, and you will not pay tax on it. The rule that catches people is not the withdrawal. It is the re-contribution: the room you free up does not return until January 1 of the next calendar year, and putting...
by Frank Restorick | Oct 19, 2026 | Life Insurance
Canada has no inheritance tax. If a parent, spouse or relative leaves you money or property, you do not pay tax simply because you received it, and you do not report the inheritance as income. The catch is that the person who died is taxed on their final return, and...
by Frank Restorick | Oct 19, 2026 | Life Insurance
A TFSA can hold far more than cash. Qualified investments include savings deposits, GICs, bonds, mutual funds, segregated funds, and most securities listed on a designated stock exchange, including stocks, ETFs and REITs. Real estate, cryptocurrency held directly and...
by Frank Restorick | Oct 17, 2026 | Life Insurance
A residual disability benefit pays you a share of your normal disability benefit that matches the share of income you lose when you can still work, but only part of the time or at lower pay. If your earnings could drop without stopping entirely, a rider is worth...