TFSAs & RRIFs: What’s the difference between beneficiaries, successor holders and successor annuitants? + MORE Jan 19th

I’d never been so excited to find mail carelessly stuffed in a mailbox. It represented new beginnings for my wife and me—the first piece of mail sent to our new home, our first house, in Hamilton, Ont. We hadn’t even moved in yet.  

My excitement faded when I pulled the envelope from a wad of crumpled flyers and opened it. Inside was a T4A from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) indicating I’d received $8,000 in Canada Emergency Response Benefits (CERB) during the 2020 tax year.

It was July 2021. By then, I’d already come to accept that a 2019 data breach at Desjardins credit union, which resulted in my personal and financial information being leaked online along with that of 9.7 million others, would likely trail me for the rest of my life. But I’d hoped that if someone were to steal my identity, the hassles stemming from that would be more easily resolved. Turns out that was wishful thinking. 

By the time I purchased my house, I already spent a year dealing with a CERB fraud, whose origins might be linked to the data breach—I’ll never know for sure…

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A MoneySense reader writes: 

I’m writing to ask about beneficiaries, successor holders and successor annuitants for TFSAs and RRIFs. What is the difference between these, and how do you choose the right one for each account?

FPAC responds: 

When you have a registered account, such as a tax-free savings account (TFSA), a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) or a registered retirement income fund (RRIF), you have the option—depending on which account you have—of naming a beneficiary or a successor for that account. First, let’s break down the differences between beneficiaries and successors.

A beneficiary inherits the assets in your account without inheriting the account itself.

A successor takes ownership of your account and all of the assets in your account. 

Whether you can name a beneficiary or successor depends on which registered account you have, but this chart shows the options: 

Account TypeBeneficiary OptionsRRSPOne or more beneficiariesRRIFOne successor or one or more beneficiariesTFSAOne successor or one or more beneficiaries

So, what’s the difference between a successor holder and a successor annuitant? For a TFSA, the successor is called a successor holder (short for successor account-holder)…