There’s a conversation we keep meaning to have with ourselves. Not a difficult one, exactly. Just one that keeps getting pushed to later.
Later, when things are more settled. Later, when the kids are older. Later, when there are more assets. Later, when there’s more time to think it through.
The conversation is this: when you’re gone, what do you want to leave behind? And for whom?
For many Canadians, the answer comes in two parts — and the two parts can feel like they’re pulling in different directions.
Part one is family. The people who depend on you, for whom you’ve spent a lifetime building something. You want them taken care of. Full stop.
Part two is everything else you care about. The causes you’ve supported over the years. The work happening in the world that you believe in. The community you’ve been part of. The beliefs you hold. The values you’ve tried to live by.
Usually, when writing a Will, part one wins. Nobody ever showed you the two don’t have to compete.
What most Canadians don’t know about their estate — and their taxes.
When you pass away, your estate will very likely face a significant tax bill. That money comes out of what you’ve spent a lifetime building, and what you intended to leave behind for loved ones.
Including a charitable gift in your Will can reduce, and in some cases eliminate, the taxes your estate would otherwise owe. Which means more of what you’ve earned stays exactly where you intended: with your family, and with the causes that matter to you.
Not one or the other. Both.
That knowledge shifts the conversation from choosing between family and a charity to choosing between both and the CRA.
A financial advisor who knows their way around estate and charitable planning can show you how to reduce the tax bill and leave your legacy where you want it. One of the most effective tools for doing that is also one of the least talked about: a charitable gift in your Will.
The conversation you need
When Canadians write a Will, they typically go straight to a lawyer, which makes sense. A lawyer makes sure your wishes are legally airtight, properly witnessed, and built to last.
But what if you could shorten and optimize the legal conversations by having big decisions already made?
Financial advisors can help. They’ll discuss topics like: have you thought about what your estate could do? Do you know what it’s likely worth? Do you know what the taxes on your might look like and what you could do about it?
Most financial advisors are primarily focused on building and protecting your assets: retirement planning, investments, insurance. But the values, communities and causes that shaped who you are? That’s rarely on the agenda unless you bring it up yourself.
Download our guide to speaking to your advisor about charitable giving.
What a good financial advisor does — and why many don’t do it.
The financial advisors in the Will Power network are different. They take a more holistic approach to estate planning. They look at your full picture – what you have, what you owe, what you value, what you’re hoping to protect – and help you figure out what’s possible before a single word of your Will gets written.
They’re part of the Will Power campaign because they want more Canadians to know what’s possible, and ask questions many advisors and lawyers don’t.
What people find out often surprises them…
Benoit and Julie had been diligent about their finances for decades. Both in their mid-60s, they paid their bills, planned ahead, and felt good about where they stood.
Their financial advisor asked them to look at one more number: a projection of what their full estate would be worth when they passed, combining their savings, investments, and assets. The total came to nearly $3 million. They were thrilled, until he showed them the number sitting beside it: a tax bill of $734,000. More than a quarter of everything they’d built, going straight to the government.
Then he showed them something else. A $750,000 gift in their Will to the Montreal-area hospital they’d supported for years, paired with a life insurance policy to replenish the estate, would generate a donation receipt large enough to cut that tax bill by $334,000. Their daughters, Joelle and Sophie, would still receive the full value of that gift back, tax-free, through the insurance payout. The gift to their daughters and the gift to the hospital weren’t competing for the same dollars. Structured properly, one made the other possible.
Benoit and Julie hadn’t thought about charitable giving as anything more than writing a cheque when something moved them. And they were treating Will writing as a separate activity. What their financial advisor showed them was a full picture including family, values, estate, and a cause they believe in. The conversation uncovered a way to take care of everyone that matters to them before anyone started writing a Will.
What a financial advisor knows that you probably don’t
A financial advisor who specializes in estate and charitable giving knows things most of us don’t. They know how to use what’s left in your RRSP or RRIF, often one of the most heavily taxed parts of an estate, to fund a gift that significantly reduces what you owe. They know how a life insurance policy can be structured to eliminate certain taxes, while still leaving your loved ones well off.
These aren’t loopholes. They’re tools the government has built directly into the tax system.
So, is this a big, complicated process? Not really. It usually starts with a conversation or two: about where you stand financially, what you’d like your money to do, and what’s possible. The advisor does the work of laying out your options once they understand your picture.
Many of the financial advisors who’ve partnered with Will Power offer free consultations, because they’re not there to sell you something. They believe more Canadians should know these options exist, and they’d rather spend an hour explaining them than watch another estate hand over more than it has to or another Will fail to reflect your life story.
What story will your gift tell?
The conversation you keep meaning to have doesn’t get easier by waiting. It just stays unfinished, sitting behind the other things you’ll do later.
Once you have it, discomfort lifts. You stop carrying an unanswered question about what happens to everything you’ve built, and you start carrying something better: a certainty that your estate will be used the way you intended. That your family will be looked after. That the causes you believe in will feel it too. That the life you built adds up to something, on purpose, instead of being sorted out by default after you’re gone.
That conversation may be the difference between a Will that simply distributes assets and one that tells a story on purpose.
Can I leave money to charity in my Will without reducing what my family receives?
For many Canadians, yes. When you include a charitable gift in your Will, your estate receives a donation tax receipt. That receipt can significantly reduce — and in some cases eliminate — the taxes your estate would otherwise owe. In practice, this means more of what you’ve earned stays where you intended: with your family, and with the causes that matter to you.
A financial advisor who specializes in charitable gift planning can map this out for your specific estate and show you exactly what’s possible. Many advisors in the Will Power campaign offer free consultations to help you understand your options, no commitment required.
What does a financial advisor do that a lawyer doesn’t when writing a Will?
A lawyer’s job is to make sure your Will is legally sound, properly witnessed, and accurately reflects the decisions you’ve already made. They often come in at the end of the process.
A financial advisor typically comes in earlier, before the decisions are made. They look at your full financial picture: your registered funds, your life insurance, your home equity, your likely tax situation. A good advisor will also ask about the causes that matter to you and help you figure out how a charitable gift can reduce your tax bill. They help you determine what’s possible and what you want your estate to do, so that when you do sit down with a lawyer you’re walking in with a clear plan.
Advisors in the Will Power network specialize in this kind of planning.
Does including a charitable gift in my Will reduce taxes in Canada?
Yes it can, significantly. Canada has some of the most generous charitable tax incentives in the world, and they apply to your estate as well as to gifts made during your lifetime. When you leave a charitable gift in your Will, or name a registered charity as the beneficiary of an RRSP/RRIF or life insurance policy, your estate receives a donation tax receipt. That receipt can offset the taxes owed on your estate. For estates with large registered funds or other taxable assets, a well-structured charitable gift could possibly eliminate the tax bill.
Topic: Financial Tips
