@calmmoneycoach: WHAT A SPOUSE CHANGES Less income, higher tax bill. What happens to the survivor. One flag before anyone asks. There is no official Canadian figure for what a survivor loses, and the $25,000 to $40,000 range that circulates online has no Canadian source. It traces to US Social Security and married-filing-jointly commentary, and joint filing doesn't exist here. So I built it, Ontario, both spouses 70, about $73,000 of household income, 2026 rates, and I'd rather show you the arithmetic than hand you somebody else's number. With a $30,000 defined benefit pension, the survivor loses about $27,000 of after-tax income, nearly 40 percent. One OAS stops entirely, about $9,000. Combined CPP falls from $25,200 to $18,379 because your own pension plus 60 percent of your spouse's hits the combined cap of $1,531.56 a month. The DB drops to its 60 percent survivor rate. Their tax bill actually falls, and they're still far worse off. Funded by a RRIF instead, same household income, the loss is about $18,000, a quarter. The RRIF rolls over so the withdrawal capacity survives, gross only falls to about $57,300, but one person now reports what two used to split and loses a basic personal amount and an age credit. Tax goes up, roughly $7,000 against $4,900 for the couple. Less income, bigger tax bill. That's the case most of you are in, and it's the one nobody models. To reach a $40,000 loss you need household gross well over $100,000 or a DB pension near $60,000. Upper middle, not middle. The Galea story, correctly. CTV News, Pat Foran, 26 September 2025. Jackie died in January at 62, her RRSP rolled to Michael, he died eleven months later at 63 with $715,000 in RRSPs and no surviving spouse. The $669,126 was not tax on the registered money alone, which would be a 93.6 percent rate and impossible. CTV is explicit: it was the RRSP tax plus capital gains on the cottage they'd owned from 1998, both landing on the same final return. Which means the estate was materially larger than $715,000, and the lesson is about stacking two large events on one return rather than about the rollover failing. The rollover worked perfectly. And the honest counterweight. Chandler's couples modelling moved ruin probability from 46 to 43 percent. Real, modest, not a crisis. Plan for the second death. Don't panic about it. Evelyn Jacks, a tax expert with the Knowledge Bureau, told CTV: "You want to do some retirement income planning for tax efficiency at least by the age of 55 to 60." Terminology note: "widow's penalty" is a US phrase. Our mechanism is different. Lost splitting, lost credits, one OAS, the CPP combined cap. Do it while you're both here to do it. Educational only, not advice. Ontario figures, other provinces differ. Verify before acting.

Brian | Calm Money Coach

Open In TikTok:

Region: NL

Tuesday 25 August 2026 20:17:36 GMT