Glossary of terms

CPP, OAS, probate, deemed disposition — every term families run into, in plain words.

Retirement income

CPP(Canada Pension Plan): The federal pension you paid into through every paycheque outside Quebec. It pays a monthly amount for life, starting anytime between 60 and 70. The amount depends on how much and how long you contributed.
QPP(Quebec Pension Plan (RRQ)): Quebec's version of CPP, run by Retraite Québec. If you worked in Quebec, your contributions went here instead. The rules and amounts are very close to CPP, and the two plans coordinate if you worked in both places.
Standard benefit: The monthly CPP or QPP amount you'd receive if you started it at 65 — the plan's reference age. Everything else is described as a percentage of this number.
Early retirement reduction: Starting CPP/QPP before 65 permanently reduces each payment by 0.6% for every month early — about 36% less at age 60. The reduction does not go away later.
Delayed retirement benefit: Waiting past 65 permanently increases each payment by 0.7% for every month you delay — about 42% more at age 70. There is no further increase after 70.
OAS(Old Age Security): A monthly payment from the federal government based on how long you've lived in Canada, not on your work history. It usually starts at 65 and can also be delayed to 70 for a larger amount.
OAS clawback(Recovery tax): If your income passes a yearly threshold, the CRA takes back part of your OAS through a recovery tax. Higher income means more is clawed back.
GIS(Guaranteed Income Supplement): A non-taxable monthly top-up for lower-income seniors who already receive OAS. It's income-tested every year, so it rises or falls with your tax return.

After a death

CPP death benefit: A one-time payment (up to $2,500) to the estate of a CPP contributor who has died. Apply through Service Canada, or Retraite Québec for QPP.
Survivor's pension: An ongoing monthly CPP/QPP payment to the spouse or common-law partner of someone who contributed. The amount depends on their contributions and the survivor's age.

Who's who

Service Canada: The federal office that handles CPP, OAS, GIS, the death benefit, and Social Insurance Numbers. Your first call for federal benefits outside Quebec.
Retraite Québec: The Quebec agency that runs the Quebec Pension Plan (RRQ) and its death and survivor benefits.
CRA(Canada Revenue Agency): The federal tax agency. It handles income tax returns, the clearance certificate, GST/HST credits, and benefit payments.
Revenu Québec: Quebec's provincial tax agency. Quebec residents file two returns each year: one with the CRA and one with Revenu Québec.

Savings & accounts

RRSP(Registered Retirement Savings Plan): A tax-deferred savings account. Contributions reduce your taxable income now; withdrawals are taxed later. It must be converted or cashed out by the end of the year you turn 71.
RRIF(Registered Retirement Income Fund): What an RRSP usually becomes at 71. You must withdraw a minimum percentage each year, and those withdrawals are taxable income.
TFSA(Tax-Free Savings Account): Savings that grow tax-free, with withdrawals that are never taxed and never affect OAS or GIS. Naming a successor holder keeps it simple for a spouse.
Beneficiary designation: The person named directly on a registered account or insurance policy. That money usually passes straight to them, outside the will and outside probate.
Successor holder: A spouse or common-law partner named on a TFSA who simply takes the account over at death — it keeps growing tax-free and doesn't use their own contribution room. Only a spouse can be a successor holder.
DPSP(Deferred Profit Sharing Plan): A workplace plan where only the employer contributes, out of company profits. Money is locked until it vests, then it's usually moved to an RRSP or RRIF. Withdrawals are taxable income.
Vesting: The point at which employer contributions in a DPSP or pension actually become yours. In a DPSP that must happen within two years of joining; leave earlier and you can lose them.
LIRA / LIF(Locked-in retirement account / life income fund): Where pension money goes when you leave a job. It behaves like an RRSP or RRIF, but provincial rules cap how much you can take out each year.
Annuity: A contract with an insurance company: you hand over a lump sum and receive a guaranteed monthly income, either for life or for a set number of years.
Term-certain annuity: An annuity that pays for a fixed period — say 15 years — rather than for life. If you die before it ends, the remaining payments go to your named beneficiary or estate.
Prescribed annuity: A non-registered annuity taxed under special rules that spread the taxable interest evenly over all payments, so the early years are taxed more gently.
Guarantee period: An option on a life annuity that promises payments for a minimum number of years even if you die early. It lowers the monthly amount slightly in exchange for protecting your family.

Taxes after a death

Spousal rollover(Refund of premiums): When an RRSP or RRIF passes to a spouse, common-law partner, or a financially dependent child, the tax bill can be deferred instead of triggered — the money moves into their registered plan.
Deemed disposition: The tax rule that treats someone as having cashed out their RRSP or RRIF (and sold their non-registered investments) the day they die. The full value lands on the final return unless a rollover applies.
Final T1 return(Terminal return): The income tax return covering January 1 to the date of death. It's due April 30 of the following year, or six months after death if that's later.
T3 trust return: The return for income the estate earns after the date of death, filed by the executor for as long as the estate holds assets.
Deemed disposition: At death, the CRA treats most property as if it were sold at fair market value. Gains are taxed on the final return, though transfers to a spouse can defer this.
Clearance certificate: The CRA's confirmation that all taxes are paid. An executor who distributes the estate before getting one can be held personally liable.

Estate & legal

Will: The legal document saying who receives your property and who administers your estate. Without one, provincial rules decide instead.
Executor(Liquidator in Quebec, estate trustee in Ontario): The person responsible for settling the estate: securing assets, paying debts and taxes, and distributing what's left.
Probate: The court process confirming a will is valid and the executor has authority. Names, fees, and timelines vary by province; Quebec instead uses notarial wills or court verification.
Estate administration tax(Probate fee): The provincial fee charged on the value of an estate going through probate. Ontario also requires an Estate Information Return within 180 days.
Power of attorney(Protection mandate in Quebec): A document letting someone you choose manage your finances or property if you can't. It ends at death, when the will takes over.
Personal directive(Living will, advance care plan): Your written health-care wishes and the person allowed to speak for you if you can't. Names differ by province.

Home & equity

Principal residence exemption: The rule that shelters the gain on your main home from capital gains tax. It must be reported on the tax return for the year of sale or death.
Reverse mortgage: A loan against home equity for homeowners 55+, with no monthly payments. Interest compounds and the full balance is repaid when the home is sold or the last borrower dies or moves out.
HELOC(Home equity line of credit): A revolving credit line secured by your home. Cheaper than a reverse mortgage, but it requires monthly interest payments and income qualification.
Joint tenancy(Right of survivorship): Co-ownership where the property passes automatically to the surviving owner, outside the will and probate. It doesn't apply the same way in Quebec.

Donation & the body

Organ donation: Giving organs such as kidneys, liver, heart or lungs for transplant after death. It is only possible in a small number of hospital deaths, and consent is registered provincially — not through a federal registry.
Tissue donation: Giving tissue such as corneas, skin, bone, heart valves or tendons. Far more people qualify than for organ donation, and it can often happen up to 24 hours after death, including deaths at home.
Eye or cornea donation: Donating the clear front layer of the eye to restore someone's sight. Age and most medical conditions are not a barrier, and it does not change the appearance of the body for an open-casket viewing.
Donor registry: The provincial or territorial list that records your consent to donate — for example Ontario's ServiceOntario registry, BC Transplant, or Transplant Québec through RAMQ. A donor card or will alone is not enough.
Whole-body donation(Body bequeathal): Leaving your body to a university anatomy program for teaching and research. It must be arranged with the school in advance, can be refused at the time of death, and usually rules out organ donation.
Neurological determination of death(Brain death): The clinical finding that makes most organ donation possible: the brain has permanently stopped functioning while a ventilator keeps the heart and lungs going in hospital.

Investments & trading

Non-registered account(Cash or taxable account): An investment or trading account that isn't an RRSP, RRIF or TFSA. There is no tax shelter, so gains, dividends and interest are taxed each year — and the holdings are treated as sold on the day the owner dies.
Deemed disposition: The CRA treats almost everything a person owned as sold at fair market value on the date of death, even if nothing was actually sold. Any gain on non-registered investments shows up on the final T1 return.
Adjusted cost base(ACB): What an investment originally cost, adjusted over time for reinvested distributions, splits and return of capital. The executor needs it to work out the capital gain at death — and old brokerage records are the hardest thing to reconstruct later.
Capital gain at death: The difference between an investment's value on the date of death and its adjusted cost base. Half of that gain is taxable income on the final return. A spousal rollover can defer it.
Spousal rollover: Non-registered investments left to a spouse or common-law partner (or a qualifying spousal trust) transfer at their original cost instead of market value, so no tax is due until that spouse sells or dies.
Self-directed brokerage(Discount or online broker): A trading account the owner manages themselves — Questrade, Wealthsimple Trade, RBC Direct Investing and the like. There is no advisor watching it, so nobody will notice or act when the owner dies unless the family tells the firm.
Margin account: A trading account that borrows against the investments in it. If the market falls, the broker can issue a margin call and sell holdings without asking — including while an estate is waiting on probate.
Open position: A trade still live in the market: options that expire on a set date, a short sale that must eventually be bought back, or a limit order sitting on the books. These keep running after a death until someone closes the account.
Crypto wallet(Self-custody wallet): Digital assets held outside an exchange, controlled only by a private key or seed phrase. If nobody knows where the key is, the assets are gone permanently — no institution can recover them for an estate.

Property & real estate

Joint tenancy(With right of survivorship): A way two or more people can own property together where, on a death, the whole property automatically belongs to the survivors. It skips the will and skips probate. Quebec does not have it — property there always passes through the estate.
Tenants in common: Co-ownership where each person owns a defined share. On a death, that share does not go to the other owners — it goes wherever the will says, through the estate and usually through probate.
Principal residence exemption(PRE): The rule that keeps the gain on your main home tax-free. A family can only designate one property per year as its principal residence, so a cottage and a house cannot both be fully exempt for the same years.
Vacancy permit(Vacancy endorsement): Written permission from a home insurer to keep coverage on a house nobody is living in. Most Canadian policies drop or sharply limit coverage after about 30 days empty, so an executor should call the insurer right away.
Ancillary probate: A second probate application filed in another province, state, or country because real estate located there is not covered by the home province's grant. It adds time, cost, and often a second lawyer.
Clearance certificate(TX19): The CRA's written confirmation that all tax owed by the deceased and the estate has been paid. An executor who distributes sale proceeds before getting it can be held personally responsible for the unpaid tax.
Land transfer tax: A provincial (and sometimes municipal) tax on transferring title. Most provinces exempt transfers to a surviving spouse or to beneficiaries under a will, but the exemption has to be claimed properly.
Survey and title search: The land registry check that shows who legally owns a property and what is registered against it — mortgages, liens, easements. An executor should order one before listing an estate property for sale.
Due-on-death clause: A mortgage term letting the lender demand full repayment when the borrower dies. Most Canadian lenders will instead let the estate keep paying or assume the mortgage, but the estate has to ask — silence and missed payments start default.