Avoiding RRSP transfer fees | Page 2 | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

Yes, GIS can be a big help but not enough if other sources are very low. It's not enough to pay for any kind of decent (or maybe indecent!) retirement home, for example, if that's what you require. I've seen some really shitty ones in my time. I wouldn't put a cat in some of them - although the mousing is probably pretty good.

Those of us who are 75 by next month are getting a 10% increase in OAS starting in July, however. I'm happy, of course, as it includes both me and my mom, but, really it's a piecemeal solution and I dont think it's well thought out.
I think the CPP death benefit is stil is still 2500, isn't it? However, it's taxable income to the survivor, so it can reduce their GIS, so it's not really worth as much as it appears. The worst of it is that the survivor will likely have spent it already on funeral expenses (and likely more) by the time their GIS is cut back the following year, leaving them short. This can be a painful shock even if you know about it. If you get the survivor benefit in 2022 it will still be affecting your income in June 2024 because of their convoluted calculations.

CPP is a good thing in general but it needs some help. Spouse is still waiting for pension increase based on 2020 contributions! We know it won't be a lot, and it doesn't matter much to us, but it could matter significantly to lots of people. Heck, they could be dead by the time it comes. There isn't much excuse for this degree of tardiness. At last inquiry, it might arrive by the FAll of this year! Might.

When we were young and RRSPs were the hot thing to do for an Everyman/woman's Tax Break, there wasn't much awareness of how young people who didn't have huge incomes weren't going to get much of a tax break from making RRSP deposits. If the anti-tax campaigners hadn't pushed income tax down and fees up, we'd all be facing HIGER tax rates now than in our low-income salad days.

After my first experience withdrawing RRSP funds in needy times - and paying large withholding because I didn't know to break it into $5K chunks - I learned to keep my RRSP eligibility for times of high income, and draw down when I wasn't going to be paying much/any income tax.
RetirEd

Norman1 said
Yes, it appears that the only option originally was to mature the RRSP to a life annuity.

I suspect that 15-year maximum guarantee for the annuity was to limit how much the annuity was like a term annuity as opposed to a life annuity. For example, a life annuity issued to a 70 year old with a 40-year guarantee minimum is really a 40-year term annuity.

It's not clear from the article whether that 15% docked from RRSP funds returned to the estate is the taxes owing or just a tax withholding.  

Life expectancy was less then too. Someone taking an annuity at 70 may have only had 15 years of actuarial life left (age 85). It makes sense that guaranteed term was limited to 15 years.