A Retirement Built for Two.
A Legacy Built for Generations.
Discover how Canadian families are using annuities and segregated funds as their primary investment vehicles to build a retirement strategy that protects their spouse, supports their children, and provides a lifelong income.
What is the concept: "Family Retirement Planning"?
When you are planning for retirement as a family, the strategy shifts. It is no longer just about calculating how much money one person needs to stop working; it is about ensuring that a surviving spouse is never left in financial distress, and that your children are never burdened with your care costs or heavy estate taxes.
Family Retirement Planning uses specialized investment vehicles,specifically annuities and segregated funds. Because these vehicles are legally structured as life insurance contracts in Canada, they provide powerful protective benefits that traditional mutual funds or standard stock portfolios simply cannot offer.
Instead of solely relying on the stock market or government pensions, this approach focuses on guaranteed income, principal protection, and seamless wealth transfer. It ensures that both partners can enjoy their golden years with absolute financial certainty.
How Can Canadian Families Use It?
In Canada, retirement income from RRSPs, RRIFs, and even the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is fully taxable. Furthermore, when one spouse passes away, household pension income often drops significantly, leaving the surviving spouse with less money to pay the same bills.
Here is how Canadian families use annuities and segregated funds to solve these retirement challenges:
Annuities for Guaranteed Income
An annuity acts as your personal family pension. By depositing a lump sum, you secure a guaranteed, predictable payout every month for the rest of your lives. It completely eliminates the risk of either spouse outliving their money, replacing lost income and ensuring your standard of living never drops, even if one partner passes away.
Segregated Funds to Shield Assets
Think of a segregated fund as a professionally managed investment portfolio wrapped inside a life insurance policy. We utilize these to guarantee your family’s principal investment. If the market crashes the year you want to retire, your family’s foundational wealth is protected by maturity and death benefit guarantees (often 75% to 100% of the initial investment).
Bypassing Probate & Seamless Transfer
Because segregated funds and annuities are insurance contracts, any remaining money goes directly to your named beneficiaries when you both pass away. This entirely bypasses the costly, public, and time-consuming probate process, keeping your family’s wealth private and intact.
Robust Creditor Protection Strategies
In many situations, assets held within segregated funds and annuities are protected from creditors and lawsuits, an essential layer of defense for business-owning families transitioning into retirement.
Who is it for?
Family Retirement Planning using insurance-backed investment
vehicles is highly effective for:
Couples Approaching Retirement
Partners in their 50s and 60s who are transitioning from the “saving” phase to the “income” phase and need to protect their nest egg from market volatility.
For Risk-Conscious Savers
Families who want to enjoy their retirement together without losing sleep over stock market crashes or economic recessions.
Business-Owning Families
Entrepreneurs looking to extract corporate wealth tax-efficiently to fund their personal family retirement while utilizing creditor-protected vehicles.
Generational Wealth Planners
Parents who want to guarantee they will never be a financial burden to their adult children, while also ensuring they leave a private, direct inheritance behind
Is Family Retirement Planning
Right For You?
Your family’s retirement shouldn’t be left to the unpredictable swings of the stock market. At True North Life Insurance,
we help Canadian families build unshakeable retirement plans using the right mix of segregated funds and annuities to
guarantee lifelong income and preserve generational wealth.