Retirees

You’ve made it to retirement and that can be an exciting transition into a new segment of your life, it's important to ensure that your financial position allows you the freedom to spend time pursuing and enjoying your life's vision, dreams and goals.

At Oaktree & Associates, all of our wealth planning services for retirees are custom tailored to each client's specific vision, wants and needs as we understand that your situation is unique to you. Regardless of what plans you have for the future, our professional wealth management team can provide you with a plan that will allow you the certainty to pursue your goals you’ve worked hard to achieve.

Survivor Benefits

Sometime in the painful days after a husband or wife's death, the funeral home or a family member will encourage the bereaved spouse to fill out the paperwork to get the Canada Pension Plan survivor's benefit.

It's a moment few widows or widowers have prepared for, and it may come as a surprise how little survivors are expected to live on.

A senior couple who both get CPP benefits and Old Age Security (OAS) can live comfortably — they'll have about $3,500 a month in income if they're both getting the maximum benefits.

But what happens when one spouse dies and the other is left alone?

The fact is that most CPP pensioners do not get the maximum benefit, currently about $1,154 a month. If the surviving partner was getting less than the maximum benefit, either because they took time out of the workforce or had a low income, they are eligible for 60 per cent of their deceased spouse's CPP.

Again the maximum benefit for a single person is the cap. They will get OAS, but just for one person, and, depending on their total income, their Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) will be adjusted, up or down.

Survivor's pensions are far from predictable, and much depends on how much each of the partners have contributed and what age they are. Also, more Canadians are living alone than ever before, reflecting in part a rising number of senior singletons.