Advisor’s Edge – Comparing Canadian and U.S. Covid-19 measures for retirees
We are pleased to announce that Jonah Ravel has recently contributed an article for Advisor’s Edge, which was published on June 30, 2020. His article titled “Comparing Canadian and U.S. Covid-19 measure for retirees” serves as a thorough review of Canada’s RRIF relief and US relief for retirement plans.
To read the article you can see it in part below, or click here to view it on the Advisor.ca website.
Comparing Canadian and U.S. Covid-19 measures for retirees
By Jonah Ravel
Advisor’s Edge
June 30, 2020
Back in March, the Canadian and U.S. governments announced a wide array of financial relief measures in response to Covid-19. A subset of these measures is aimed at helping seniors who hold individual retirement plans. The U.S. also provided a relief measure available to younger owners of retirement plans.
Those who hold both Canadian and U.S. retirement plans are eligible for the relief measures on both sides of the border. As we’ll see, the U.S. measures are both more generous and more flexible than what the Canadian government provided.
Canada’s RRIF relief
The Canadian government provided a 25% reduction to the RRIF minimum required withdrawal amount in 2020. The amount is based on the account holder’s age and the RRIF value at the start of the year. Someone who was 78 on Jan. 1, for example, will only be required to withdraw 4.77% of the Jan. 1 RRIF balance this year, instead of the regular 6.36%.
