Retirement Savings Plans

A gift of retirement plans is a way to transform tax liabilities into a charitable gift.

In planning for retirement, you may have created plans such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP), Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIF), Registered Pension Plans (RPP), or Life Income Funds (LIF). After your death, the money remaining in these funds must be reported as income and is fully taxable to your estate. When the funds are added to your other income for the year, the total will likely cause a taxation rate of approximately 40 per cent.

The loss of these dollars is unavoidable; however, you do have some control over where the dollars will go. By naming the Community Endowment Fund as the beneficiary of your tax-deferred retirement plan, your estate will receive a tax credit for the amount left in the plans after your death. The tax credit will offset any tax on the proceeds.