Canadian CANNAINVESTOR Magazine May / June 2018 | Page 193

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Most couples have very little planning to do if one spouse passes away. Most registered assets will have a named beneficiary and rollover tax free and outside of the will, so no probate is necessary. See below the hypothetical example.

Total Estate Remaining: – $2,320,000

Total Estate Remaining: – $1,794,000

The registered assets all have the spouse as named beneficiary. This includes the LIRA, RRSP and TFSA. Named beneficiaries avoid probate and if it’s the spouse named, avoid tax. The joint assets would rollover to the spouse also without taxes payable or probate. The complications arise when you don’t want to leave assets to just your spouse OR when the second spouse passes. Let’s check out what happens when the surviving spouse attempts to leave those assets to an adult child.

*Assumes 1.5% probate fee. **Assumes 53% marginal tax rate

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