Only after thinking through the tax. A named child receives the funds; the estate — shared by everyone — pays the tax.
The Canadian position
A rollover is available to a spouse or a financially dependent child. Otherwise the plan is treated as fully withdrawn and taxed on the final return.
Naming one child on a large RRSP can generate a tax bill the other heirs effectively fund.
The Islamic position
The result is a distribution further from faraid than doing nothing: one heir receives an asset, the others absorb its cost.
RRSPs, TFSAs, joint tenancy and beneficiary designations are all newer than the four schools, so this is not a madhhab difference and we have built no four-school table for it. What the schools do agree is the test: the tarikah is what the deceased owned at the moment of death, not how the asset moved afterwards. Applying that test to Canadian instruments is a present-day question, and named bodies reach opposite results — AMJA and Qatar’s Islamweb keep an earned plan in the estate; Singapore’s MUIS treats a nomination as a completed lifetime gift. No source on either side reasons from probate.
No school ruled on this instrument; named present-day bodies differ. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Assets that pass outside the estate — are they part of the tarikah?.
Making an Islamic will in Canada — province by province, and what makes one valid where you live →
What to do about it
- Model the tax before naming anyone.
- Consider naming the estate so the asset and its tax stay together.
- Take advice — naming the estate exposes the funds to probate and creditors.
This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.
Citations & sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to a source below. Details change — check the original source before relying on any figure, fee or legal position. Anything under “further reading” is related material, not a source for what is stated here.
- Death of an RRSP annuitant — Canada Revenue Agency
- Death of a TFSA holder — Canada Revenue Agency
- What to do when someone has died — Canada Revenue Agency
- Rrsp beneficiary financially dependent child — Treadstone Law
- Who pays tax rrsp outside the estate ontario — Treadstone Law
- Rrsp rrif rollover to spouse at death — Treadstone Law
- Intestacy spouse one child ontario — Treadstone Law
- Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law