Published: March 20, 2020
Last Updated: January 17, 2022
In the case of Perring the Ontario Court of Appeal held that RRSPs do not form part of the estate of a deceased but instead devolve directly to the designated beneficiary and that a creditor has no recourse to repayment from the RRSP proceeds in the designated beneficiary’s hands when the estate cannot pay its debts. There has been a divergence of judicial opinion on the issue between Ontario and other provinces. RRSPs in Ontario are now treated in the same way as the proceeds of a life insurance policy, that is to say they both devolve directly to the designated beneficiary, not via the estate, and are thereby beyond the reach of creditors.
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