BC Families: Year-End Financial Planning Checklist

In 2023, 11.3 million Canadian tax filers put money into an RRSP or a TFSA. Only 2.5 million contributed to both, and the median contribution among RRSP-only contributors was $3,420, according to Statistics Canada. Set that against a 2026 RRSP dollar limit of $33,810 and you get an honest picture of year-end financial planning in Canada. Most families aren't maxing anything out. They're making one contribution, in one account, and hoping it's the right one.

That's a normal place to be. But a December review is cheap, and a few of these deadlines don't come back.

The 2026 numbers, checked against the source

Before you decide anything, write down what you're actually allowed to do.

• RRSP: the dollar limit for 2026 is $33,810, rising to $35,390 for 2027 (CRA). Your own deduction limit is generally 18% of last year's earned income up to that ceiling, minus any pension adjustment, plus unused room carried forward. Your notice of assessment has your real number.
• TFSA: the 2026 dollar limit is $7,000, added to your room on January 1, 2026 (CRA).
• FHSA: $8,000 of participation room a year, unused room carrying forward to a maximum of $8,000, against a lifetime FHSA limit of $40,000 (CRA).
• RESP: the Canada Education Savings Grant pays 20% on the first $2,500 contributed per child each year, so up to $500 a year, to a lifetime maximum of $7,200 per child (Government of Canada).
• B.C. tax: for the 2026 tax year the first $50,363 of taxable income is taxed provincially at 5.60%, and Budget 2026 paused indexation of the brackets for the 2027 to 2030 tax years (B.C. Ministry of Finance).

That last one gets almost no attention. If the provincial brackets stop moving with inflation for four years while your pay keeps rising, more of your income drifts into the next bracket up. That's not a prediction about your tax bill. It just means a deduction claimed in a higher-rate year is worth more than the same deduction claimed in a lower-rate year, which is arithmetic rather than a forecast.

RRSPs have two deadlines, and only one is in December

The contribution deadline isn't December 31. It falls in the first 60 days of the following year. The CRA's important dates page lists March 2, 2026 as the deadline for the 2025 tax year, and the date for the current year gets posted the same way. Check that page rather than assuming, because the exact day shifts with weekends.

One RRSP deadline really is December 31, though. The same CRA page says December 31 of the year you turn 71 is the last day you can contribute to your own RRSP. If you turned 71 this year, or a parent did, that's a hard stop. There's no extension and no catch-up afterward.

The TFSA rule that trips people up in January

This part is worth reading twice. The CRA states that when you withdraw from your TFSA, you regain that same amount as new available contribution room on January 1 of the *following* year, not right away. So a withdrawal made in late December frees the room a few weeks later. The identical withdrawal made in early January waits almost a full year.

There's a second trap. Your CRA account isn't live. Financial institutions only send a calendar year's transaction information at the end of February the following year, and the CRA notes that 2025 TFSA records will be processed by April 2026. Its own guidance is to calculate your available room from your financial institution's records, not from the figure showing in your CRA account. Contribute more than your available room and you're taxed on the excess.

RESPs: the grant year that closes and doesn't reopen

CESG is granted per calendar year. Miss a year and the room does carry forward, and you can catch up by contributing up to $5,000 in a year to collect as much as $1,000 of grant, so long as you stay under the $7,200 lifetime cap. But eligibility ends at the end of the calendar year the child turns 17, and there are extra conditions for children aged 16 and 17.

Lower and middle income households qualify for more. For 2026, adjusted family net income under $58,523 attracts an additional 20% on the first $500 contributed, worth $100, and income between $58,523 and $117,045 attracts 10%, worth $50.

B.C. adds its own piece. The province contributes $1,200 through the B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant for a child aged 6 to 8, where parent and child are B.C. residents and the child is named as beneficiary of an RESP at a participating financial institution. That window is only three years wide. Plenty of families in Burnaby and Coquitlam hear about it after their kid turns nine.

The coverage half of the checklist

Contribution room gets all the December attention. Coverage quietly drifts.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada reported that severe weather caused more than $2.4 billion in insured losses across Canada in 2025, making it the tenth costliest year on record. Insured losses totalled $14 billion between 2006 and 2015 and about $37 billion between 2016 and 2025, adjusted for inflation. IBC's president and CEO put it plainly: "Two decades ago, insured losses seldom surpassed $500 million in a year. Today, annual costs exceeding $1 billion have become the norm."

Worth pulling out of the drawer this month:

• Your home policy's rebuild limit, and whether it reflects current construction costs rather than what you paid for the place.
• Whether you carry sewer backup and overland water endorsements, and what those endorsements exclude.
• Beneficiary designations on life insurance, RRSPs and TFSAs, especially after a marriage, separation, birth or death in the family.
• Whether group coverage through work is enough on its own, and what happens to it if you change employers.
• Any term life policy approaching its renewal date, since the renewal terms were set in the original contract.
• Critical illness and disability coverage, which people often assume they have through work and often don't at the level they'd actually need.

None of that requires buying anything. It requires reading what you already own.

What this doesn't tell you

The honest limits on everything above:

• The most recent official Canadian contribution data is from 2023. Statistics Canada says the 2024 release, originally due in spring 2026, has been pushed to winter 2026/2027 because of a file redesign. Nobody has fresher national figures right now.
• Knowing the limits says nothing about the order. Whether RRSP should come before TFSA or FHSA depends on your marginal rate now versus later, on income-tested benefits, and on your household. The published rules genuinely don't settle that, and thoughtful advisors disagree.
• The B.C. bracket freeze is announced policy, not a prediction about your personal tax bill.
• Insurance loss statistics are national and industry-wide. They say nothing about your premium, your property, or what any particular insurer will offer you.
• "Contribution room" and "deduction limit" aren't interchangeable, and only your notice of assessment carries your actual figure.

This article summarises published rules and research for general information, is current as of the date shown, and is not personalized financial, tax or legal advice.

Sources

1. Canada Revenue Agency. *MP, DB, RRSP, DPSP, ALDA, TFSA limits, YMPE and the YAMPE*, 2026. Link
2. Canada Revenue Agency. *Calculate your TFSA contribution room*, 2026. Link
3. Canada Revenue Agency. *Important dates for RRSPs, HBP, LLP, FHSAs and more*, 2026. Link
4. Canada Revenue Agency. *Participating in your FHSAs*, 2026. Link
5. Government of Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada). *How much money can be added to Registered Education Savings Plans*, 2026. Link
6. Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Finance. *Personal income tax rates*, updated April 17, 2026. Link
7. Statistics Canada. *The Daily: RRSP, TFSA and FHSA Contributions, 2023*, released April 1, 2025. Link
8. Insurance Bureau of Canada. *Severe weather-related insured losses in Canada exceed $2.4 billion in 2025*, 2026. Link

If you'd like a second set of eyes on any of this before the calendar turns, that's what I'm here for. I'm an independent broker in Burnaby, I compare Canada's top insurers rather than working for one of them, and I work with families across Metro Vancouver in English and Tagalog. Book a free call and we'll walk through your own numbers together. No pressure, no obligation, just a clear look at where you stand.