Beneficiaries and your pension

Learn the options available to you when choosing a beneficiary (or beneficiaries) for your pension benefit.

Naming multiple beneficiaries

You can name a combination of persons, trusts and organizations as your beneficiaries. However, you cannot name your spouse as one of multiple beneficiaries because pension legislation requires that your spouse be your sole beneficiary.

If you are naming more than one beneficiary, you can assign a different percentage of your pension benefit to each beneficiary. The total amount must add up to 100 per cent.

If a beneficiary dies before you, and you have not named an alternate beneficiary, the surviving beneficiary(ies) will share the deceased beneficiary’s percentage of your pension benefit.

For example, you could name your two adult children and a favourite charity as beneficiaries. You could assign 45 per cent of your pension benefit to each child and 10 per cent to the charity, for a total of 100 per cent. If one child died before you, and you did not update your beneficiaries before your own death, your deceased child’s 45 per cent portion would be divided into two and shared equally between your surviving child and the charity.