Registered Accounts

Contributions are deducted from your taxable income in the year you make them, the investments grow tax-sheltered, and withdrawals are taxed as income when they come out.

The logic is a bet on your own tax rate: you're deferring income from a high-earning year to a lower-earning one. That makes the RRSP powerful for people in higher brackets and considerably less compelling for someone early in their career whose income is likely to rise.

Your contribution room is 18 percent of prior-year earned income up to an annual maximum, plus any room carried forward. Unused room accumulates indefinitely — which is why a high-income year is often the right moment to use several years of accumulated room at once.

A spousal RRSP is contributed to by the higher-earning partner but owned by the lower-earning one. The contributor gets the deduction; the eventual withdrawal is taxed in the other spouse's hands.

The purpose is income splitting in retirement. Two people each drawing $​50,000 pay meaningfully less combined tax than one drawing $​100,000 while the other draws nothing. Where there's a persistent income gap between partners, this is one of the simplest and most reliable planning tools available.

There's a three-year attribution rule on withdrawals, which is exactly the kind of detail that turns a good strategy into an unexpected tax bill if nobody mentions it.

Contributions aren't deductible, but growth is tax-free and withdrawals are completely tax-free — and the room you withdraw comes back the following January.

That flexibility makes the TFSA the most versatile account in the system. It works for an emergency fund, a medium-term goal, and long-term growth simultaneously. It doesn't affect income-tested benefits like OAS or GIS, which makes it particularly valuable in retirement.

Room begins accumulating at 18 (or on becoming a Canadian resident) and carries forward. The most common mistake we correct is re-contributing a withdrawal in the same calendar year, which triggers a penalty of one percent per month on the excess.

The FHSA combines the best of both: contributions are tax-deductible like an RRSP, and qualifying withdrawals for a first home are tax-free like a TFSA. There is no repayment requirement.

It's available to first-time home buyers aged 18 and over, with an annual contribution limit and a lifetime maximum, and it can be held for up to 15 years. If you don't end up buying, the balance can be transferred to your RRSP without using RRSP room.

It can also be combined with the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan, which for many first-time buyers is the single largest tax-assisted down payment strategy available.

An RESP is for a child's post-secondary education, and its main attraction is free money: the Canada Education Savings Grant matches 20 percent of your contributions up to an annual and lifetime maximum, with additional grants for lower-income families.

Contributions aren't tax-deductible, but growth is sheltered, and when withdrawn the growth and grants are taxed in the student's hands — usually at close to zero.

The details are where value is won or lost: contributing enough each year to capture the full grant rather than lumping money in late, choosing between individual and family plans, understanding what qualifies as a program, and planning withdrawals so the taxable portion comes out in the student's lowest-income years.

An RRSP has to be converted by the end of the year you turn 71. A RRIF is the most common destination — the same investments, now paying you an income, with a government-set minimum withdrawal each year.

The minimum rises with age, and everything withdrawn is taxable income. That has knock-on effects: it can push you into a higher bracket, trigger OAS clawback, and affect other income-tested benefits. Planning ahead often means drawing some RRSP income before 71 to smooth the curve, rather than facing a forced escalation later.

When you leave an employer with a pension, the commuted value often moves into a Locked-In Retirement Account. It behaves like an RRSP but with restrictions: you generally can't withdraw it before retirement age, and when it converts to a Life Income Fund there's a maximum annual withdrawal as well as a minimum.

The rules differ depending on whether the pension was federally or provincially regulated, and there are limited unlocking provisions in specific circumstances. It's an area where people frequently don't know what they're allowed to do — usually in the direction of assuming they have less flexibility than they actually have.

The RDSP is for Canadians eligible for the Disability Tax Credit, and it carries the most generous government matching in the system: the Canada Disability Savings Grant matches contributions at up to 300 percent, plus a bond for lower-income beneficiaries that requires no contribution at all.

It is significantly underused, largely because families don't know it exists or assume the application is harder than it is. If someone in your family qualifies for the DTC, this account deserves a conversation.

If you have a workplace pension, group RRSP, or DPSP, it's part of your plan whether or not anyone has explained it to you.

We help you understand what you actually have, contribute enough to capture any employer match (declining a match is leaving guaranteed return on the table), coordinate it with your personal accounts so you don't over-contribute, and decide what to do with it when you change jobs.