Who can I name as a beneficiary on my accounts and insurance in Ontario?

In Ontario, you have broad flexibility in who you can name as a beneficiary on registered accounts (RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs) and life insurance policies. You can name any individual — a spouse or partner, children, grandchildren, siblings, friends, or anyone else — as well as your own estate.

For RRSPs and RRIFs, naming a spouse or common-law partner as the beneficiary (or as the successor annuitant for a RRIF) offers the most tax-efficient outcome because of the spousal rollover or successor holder rules.

For TFSAs, a spouse can be named as a "successor holder," which is even more advantageous than naming them as a beneficiary because the account simply becomes theirs and remains a TFSA.

You can name a charity as a beneficiary — this can have income tax and estate planning advantages worth exploring with an advisor.

You can also name multiple beneficiaries and specify percentages (such as splitting equally among three children). If one named beneficiary predeceases you, whether their share passes to their children or reverts to the other beneficiaries depends on how your designation is worded — this is worth specifying.