RRSP Stocks in Canada: Ranked on Tax Saved, Not Yield

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Almost every list of RRSP stocks in Canada opens with the same five names: a bank, a pipeline, a utility, a railway, a telecom. They are good businesses. They are also, measured against what the account actually does for you, close to the worst possible use of RRSP room.

The RRSP has exactly one structural advantage no other Canadian account has. Under the Canada-United States tax convention, dividends paid into an RRSP arrive without the 15% US withholding tax that a Canadian resident pays everywhere else, including inside a TFSA, where it cannot be recovered. That exemption is worth 15% of every US dividend, every year, forever. A Canadian eligible dividend collects nothing from it. Worse, a Canadian dividend held in an RRSP gives up the dividend tax credit it would have earned in a taxable account, and comes out years later as fully taxed income.

So this page ranks on a different question from the usual one. Not “what is the best Canadian stock,” which our main Canadian stock rankings already answer, but a narrower and more useful one: which holdings gain the most from sitting inside an RRSP rather than anywhere else you could put them? Ten names, ordered by how much the account saves you and how durable that saving looks, with every company figure taken from that company’s own filing.

The answer reorders the conventional list considerably. It also means the tenth name on this page is not the tenth best business. It is the one that needs the account least, and we say so in its section rather than letting the number imply a verdict it does not deserve.

Prices are the September 11, 2026 close. Company financials are from the filings named beside them. Rules and limits are from the Canada Revenue Agency and the tax convention itself.

What the Numbers Actually Say

• The treaty exemption is the whole argument, and it is measurable. Article XXI(2) of the Canada-United States tax convention exempts dividend and interest income derived by a retirement plan. On a 5.5% US payer, that is 82 basis points a year of pure tax saved, taken off nothing and compounding against everything.
• One year of RRSP room, invested for thirty years, ends about $80,000 apart depending on which account holds it. The arithmetic is below, and the assumptions behind it are stated rather than buried.
• The 2026 RRSP dollar limit is $33,810, rising to $35,390 for 2027. The deadline for a contribution you want to deduct on your 2026 return is March 1, 2027.
• Canadian eligible dividends are the weakest fit for the account, not the strongest. The dividend tax credit only exists outside registration, and an RRSP withdrawal is taxed as ordinary income at your full marginal rate.
• Three of the ten ranked holdings are US-listed. That is not a detour from Canadian investing. It is the direct consequence of ranking on what the account rewards, and it is the part of the RRSP most Canadian lists leave on the table.
• The Bank of Canada’s policy rate is 2.25%, unchanged since October 30, 2025. Every rate-sensitive name below is priced against that and against what the market thinks comes next.

How To Buy RRSP Stocks in Canada

Before any ranking matters, the account has to be the right kind, in the right currency, at a broker that lets you hold US shares directly. That last detail is not a nicety on this page. It is the difference between capturing the treaty exemption and paying for a benefit you never receive.

The account types, and the one this page requires

An RRSP at a bank branch is usually a depositary plan: savings deposits, GICs, term deposits, nothing listed. A self-directed RRSP at a brokerage is the one that can hold stocks, ETFs and bonds, and it is what every holding below needs. Moving from one to the other is a direct transfer between issuers, which does not use contribution room and does not create a taxable event. People leave money in a branch savings RRSP for years because they assume moving it costs them room. It does not.

There is also a spousal RRSP, where you contribute and take the deduction while your spouse owns the plan. It is a genuine planning tool for couples with different incomes, and it carries a three-year attribution rule that catches people who withdraw too early.

What it costs, and the one fee that matters here

Zero-commission trading on Canadian and US-listed stocks and ETFs is now the baseline at the discount brokers, so the cost that actually decides your outcome on this page is currency conversion. If your broker forces every US dividend and every US trade through a conversion, you pay a spread on the way in, on the way out, and on every dividend in between. That quietly eats the 15% the treaty just handed you.

What you want is a dual-currency registered account: a USD side of your RRSP that holds US dollars, receives US dividends in US dollars, and reinvests them without conversion. We use Questrade for exactly this reason. Free dual-currency registered accounts mean US shares and their dividends stay in US dollars inside the RRSP, which is the setup the first three holdings on this list require. Our Questrade review sets out the full fee schedule, and Questrade against Wealthsimple is the comparison most readers are actually running. Wealthsimple is the gentler entry point if you would rather not manage currency at all, and our Wealthsimple review is honest about what that convenience costs. If you are choosing a broker from scratch, the best investing apps in Canada ranks them all.

What you need to open one

A Social Insurance Number, government photo identification, your employment and income details, and about fifteen minutes. There is no minimum deposit at the major discount brokers, and no age restriction beyond having earned income that generated contribution room. If you have never opened a brokerage account before, our walkthrough on how to open a brokerage account in Canada covers the questions the application asks and why it asks them.

The five steps

1. Check your room. Your exact deduction limit is on your notice of assessment and in CRA My Account. Work it out from your income and pension adjustment with the calculator linked in the contribution limit section below if you want the arithmetic first. 2. Open a self-directed RRSP and ask for the dual-currency version if your broker offers both. 3. Fund it, by transfer from another institution, by electronic funds transfer, or by pre-authorized contribution. The funding methods are set out further down this page. 4. Buy in the right currency. US-listed shares bought and held in the USD side of the account are what the treaty exemption applies to. A Canadian-listed fund holding the same US companies does not get there, for reasons explained in the next section. 5. Claim the deduction, or bank it. You may carry a deduction forward to a higher-income year. What the deduction is worth depends on your bracket, and that difference is frequently what decides between contributing this year and waiting.

The One Thing an RRSP Does That No Other Account Does

This is the mechanism the ranking rests on, so it is worth getting exactly right.

The United States taxes dividends paid to foreign investors. The tax convention between Canada and the United States caps that at 15 per cent of the gross amount of the dividends for ordinary portfolio investors, under Article X(2)(b). That is the rate a Canadian pays on US dividends in a taxable account, where it is at least recoverable through the foreign tax credit, and in a TFSA, where it is not recoverable at all because the income never enters your Canadian return.

Article XXI(2) then carves out an exception. It exempts:

income referred to in Articles X (Dividends) and XI (Interest) derived by a trust, company, organization or other arrangement that is a resident of a Contracting State, generally exempt from income taxation in a taxable year in that State and operated exclusively to administer or provide pension, retirement or employee benefits.

The Internal Revenue Service applied that article to Canadian retirement accounts directly in Private Letter Ruling 200810013, issued December 6, 2007: “An RRSP is a trust, company, organization or other arrangement described in Article XXI(2)(a) of the Treaty. Consequently, dividends and interest derived by an RRSP will be exempt from U.S. income tax pursuant to Article XXI(2)(a) of the Treaty.” The ruling reached the same conclusion for registered pension plans, RRIFs and deferred profit sharing plans. The full text of both articles is in the consolidated convention published by the Department of Finance.

Three caveats, because this gets oversold constantly and a reader deserves the limits along with the benefit.

A private letter ruling is not precedent. It binds the IRS only as to the taxpayer who asked for it and, by statute, may not be cited as authority by anyone else. It is a clear statement of how the agency reads the article, not a regulation. In practice Canadian brokers apply it, and your account statements will show US dividends arriving gross in an RRSP and net of 15% in a TFSA.

The exemption attaches to income derived by the plan. Where a Canadian-listed fund owns the US shares, the US tax is applied to the fund before any distribution reaches your RRSP. Holding a Canadian-domiciled US equity ETF inside an RRSP does not generally capture the exemption. Holding the US-listed shares, or a US-domiciled ETF, does. That is a structural reading of the article rather than a published ruling on fund structures, and it is the single most common way Canadians think they have the benefit and do not. If you are weighing funds rather than individual names, our Canadian ETF rankings work through the domicile question.

It covers dividends and interest, and nothing else. Not US estate tax exposure, which is a separate regime with its own thresholds. Not the portion of a US REIT distribution designated as a capital gain distribution under the US real property rules, which follows different mechanics. Your broker’s year-end tax slip is the record of what was actually withheld, and it is worth reading once against what you expected.

What the exemption is worth

Take one year of RRSP room, $33,810, put it in a US dividend payer yielding 5.5%, reinvest the dividends, and assume 3% a year of price growth. Inside an RRSP the full dividend compounds. Inside a TFSA, 85% of it does.

After ten years the two are $5,618 apart. After twenty, $24,469. After thirty, $79,977, which is 25.7% more money from an identical holding bought on an identical day. Nothing in that calculation is a market call. The growth rate is an assumption and the yield is a fact, and if you halve the growth rate the gap narrows but never closes, because the gap is made of the dividend.

That is the entire case for putting your US dividend payers in your RRSP and your growth in your TFSA. It is also why the ranking below puts the US payers at the top. If compounding on that timescale is new to you, compounding explained is the ten-minute version.

The ranking criterion, stated plainly

Every holding below is ranked on two things, in this order:

1. What the account saves on it. The 15% treaty exemption on US dividends, and the shelter value of income that would otherwise be taxed at your full marginal rate (REIT distributions, interest, foreign dividends). Canadian eligible dividends score lowest here, because outside registration they already get favourable treatment through the dividend tax credit. 2. Whether the income survives. A saving on a dividend that gets cut is worth nothing. So the yield is only as good as the payout ratio, the balance sheet and the record behind it, all of which come from the filings.

A name that scores low does not get dropped for it. It gets ranked accordingly, with the reason written down.

The Ten RRSP Holdings at a Glance

#	Holding	Yield	What the account saves	Why it ranks here
1	Realty Income (O)	5.46%	82 bps a year of US withholding, on income taxed at full rates outside registration	The one holding punished twice everywhere else
2	Verizon (VZ)	5.59%	84 bps a year, the largest treaty saving on this list	Biggest saving, thinnest growth, stated plainly
3	PepsiCo (PEP)	4.34%	65 bps a year, on a dividend raised for more than fifty years	Most durable US dividend here, currently out of favour
4	RioCan REIT (REI.UN)	5.61%	Distributions taxed as ordinary income outside registration, sheltered in full	Highest-shelter Canadian income on the list
5	Enbridge (ENB)	5.86%	Shelter only, no treaty saving, and the dividend tax credit forgone	Largest Canadian dividend, smallest per-dollar benefit at this yield
6	Fortis (FTS)	3.40%	Shelter only, on 52 straight years of increases	The dividend you can plan a retirement date around
7	Royal Bank (RY)	2.47%	Shelter only, on the country’s most profitable bank	Quality is not in question, account fit is
8	Intact Financial (IFC)	2.28%	Shelter only, mostly on capital gains you would defer anyway	A compounder that needs the account least among the payers
9	Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD)	1.04%	Almost nothing on the dividend, everything deferred on the gain	Growth first, income later, if ever
10	Dollarama (DOL)	0.29%	Effectively nothing	Excellent business, wrong account, and we say why

Yields are computed from the most recently declared dividend, annualized, against the September 11, 2026 close. The treaty saving is that yield multiplied by the 15% US withholding rate the RRSP exempts, which applies only to the three US-listed names.

The Ten, In Order

Each holding below carries the same three-part case: the macro environment it is levered to, where price sits against its own moving averages, and what actually happened the last several times that setup occurred. The crossover records are computed from ten years of daily closes, and the number of observations is reported beside every median, because eight events is a direction and not a probability.

1. Realty Income (O)

The macro reason. Realty Income is a net-lease landlord: it owns single-tenant retail and industrial property on long leases where the tenant pays tax, insurance and maintenance. That makes it a bond substitute with a growth kicker, and it trades like one. Its cost of capital moves with long rates, and the Bank of Canada’s 2.25% policy rate matters to it far less than the US long end does. The business itself is the most defensive thing on this list, because necessity retail keeps paying rent when discretionary spending stops.

Why it is number one. It is the only holding here that is taxed twice outside an RRSP. A US REIT distribution is not an eligible dividend and gets no dividend tax credit in Canada, so in a taxable account it is taxed at your full marginal rate, and the 15% US withholding comes off the top first. In a TFSA the withholding applies and cannot be recovered. In an RRSP the withholding does not apply at all and the income is sheltered until you take it out. At a 5.46% yield the treaty piece alone is worth 82 basis points a year.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 revenue was $1,547.7 million against $1,410.4 million a year earlier, up 9.7%, and diluted earnings per share were $0.37 against $0.22 (Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, accession 0000726728-26-000048). The monthly dividend paid in each of April, May and June 2026 was $0.2705 per share, which annualizes to $3.246.

Revenue has grown 2.8 times in five years, and most of that came from acquiring portfolios rather than from rent escalation on the ones it already owned. That is the honest read of the chart: this is a consolidator, and the test of a consolidator is whether earnings per share follow revenue. On a quarterly basis they have moved erratically, between $0.22 and $0.37 in consecutive second quarters, because depreciation and asset sales swing reported earnings for landlords in a way they do not for operating companies.

The technical picture. The 50-day average sits at $62.72 and the 200-day at $60.66, so the golden-cross regime that began on June 17, 2025 at $53.79 is technically intact and up 10.6%. Price at $59.50 is below both averages, which is the configuration that usually precedes the regime ending.

The precedent, computed. Ten years of daily closes contain seven completed golden-cross regimes. Median peak gain was 5.1%, the best was 62.1%, the worst 0.4%, and three of the seven made a new all-time high before the regime ended. Seven observations is directional and nothing more. The more useful number is the reverse case: across seven completed death-cross regimes the median peak gain was still 7.1%, and none made a new high. For a holding bought for its monthly cheque, that asymmetry matters less than it would for a growth name, which is the point of owning it here.

The risk. Tenant concentration in discount retail, and a share count that has grown with every acquisition. If long rates rise, this falls, and the dividend does not protect the price.

2. Verizon (VZ)

The macro reason. US wireless is a three-player oligopoly with enormous fixed costs, heavy debt and pricing power that has finally started to show up again. That makes it a rate-sensitive income holding levered to subscriber economics rather than to the business cycle. It is defensive in a recession and it lags badly in a melt-up.

Why it ranks second. At a 5.59% yield, the treaty exemption saves 84 basis points a year, the largest figure on this list. That is the entire argument, and the ranking does not pretend otherwise.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 revenue was $34,253 million against $34,504 million a year earlier, a decline of 0.7%, and diluted earnings per share were $0.92 against $1.18 (Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, accession 0000732712-26-000046). Fiscal 2025 revenue was $138,191 million (Form 10-K, accession 0000732712-26-000007). The quarterly dividend declared in the second quarter of 2026 was $0.7075, annualizing to $2.83.

The chart is the thesis and the warning in one image. Verizon has raised the dividend every year, and every raise has been five cents. In percentage terms that is 1.9% a year and falling, because the same nickel is a smaller fraction of a larger base each time. A yield this high with growth this slow is the market telling you it does not expect much more than the cheque. Buy it for the cheque, not for the compounding.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $46.86, the 200-day is $44.90, and price at $50.61 sits 8.0% above the 50-day and 12.7% above the 200-day. The current golden-cross regime started on February 12, 2026 at $47.91 and has made a new high within it.

The precedent, computed. Nine golden crosses in ten years, eight of them completed. Median peak gain 4.7%, best 31.2%, worst 0.0%, and only three of eight made a new high before the regime failed. That is a poor record and it is reported here because it contradicts the momentum a reader can see on the chart today. Verizon’s golden crosses have mostly been false dawns. The current one is already ahead of the median, which is a reason for care rather than confidence.

The risk. Debt, capital intensity, and a competitive market where price cuts are the first tool anyone reaches for. This is the holding on the list most likely to deliver its yield and nothing else.

3. PepsiCo (PEP)

The macro reason. Snacks and beverages, sold in every country, repriced with inflation. PepsiCo’s business is a bet that people keep buying small everyday indulgences, which has been among the most reliable propositions in equities for fifty years. The current pressure is different: weight-loss drugs, a consumer trading down, and the packaging and commodity costs that come with a tariff cycle.

Why it ranks third. The dividend is the most durable on the US side of this list, and the treaty saving is worth 65 basis points a year at the current yield. It ranks below Verizon on the saving and above it on everything that determines whether the saving persists.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 revenue, for the twelve weeks ended June 13, 2026, was $24,181 million against $22,726 million a year earlier, up 6.4%, with diluted earnings per share of $2.18 against $0.92 (Form 10-Q, accession 0000077476-26-000035). The quarterly dividend declared in that period was $1.48, annualizing to $5.92. Fiscal 2025 revenue was $93,925 million and operating income $11,498 million (Form 10-K, accession 0000077476-26-000007).

Dividends declared per share went from $4.2475 in fiscal 2021 to $5.6225 in fiscal 2025, compounding at 7.3% a year. Set that against Verizon’s 1.9% and the ranking logic of this page becomes visible: the same treaty exemption applied to a dividend growing four times faster is worth materially more in twenty years, even though it is worth less today.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $138.15 and the 200-day is $145.50, so the stock is in a death-cross regime that began on June 29, 2026 at $137.21. Price at $136.32 is 6.3% below its 200-day. This is a broken chart on a business that is still growing revenue.

The precedent, computed. Six completed death-cross regimes in ten years produced a median peak gain of 6.3% from the crossover price, a best of 10.9%, and a new all-time high in only one of six. Seven completed golden-cross regimes produced a median peak gain of 10.0% with a new high in five of seven. Both samples are small. What they say together is that across those thirteen measured regimes PepsiCo kept grinding higher inside bad-looking charts without making new highs, which is exactly what a reinvested dividend wants and exactly what a momentum buyer does not.

The risk. If GLP-1 drugs structurally shrink snacking volumes, this is a value trap with a good dividend rather than a compounder on sale. Nobody has that answer yet, and anybody selling you one is guessing.

4. RioCan REIT (REI.UN)

The macro reason. RioCan owns Canadian retail, concentrated in the major markets and anchored by grocery and necessity tenants, with a development pipeline converting parking lots into mixed-use residential. Its rents are levered to Canadian population growth and its cost of capital to the Bank of Canada’s 2.25% rate. Retail landlord economics in Canada have been improving for three years because almost nothing new has been built.

Why it ranks fourth, and first among Canadian names. REIT distributions are the most heavily taxed income a Canadian retail investor commonly receives. They arrive as some combination of other income, capital gain and return of capital, and the ordinary-income portion is taxed at your full marginal rate outside registration with no credit of any kind. Sheltering that is worth more per dollar than sheltering an eligible dividend. There is no treaty saving because there is no US tax involved, which is why it sits below the US names rather than above them.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 funds from operations were $0.40 per unit against $0.38 a year earlier, up 5.3%, with retail committed occupancy at 98.8% and a trailing-twelve-month FFO payout ratio of 67.7% (RioCan second-quarter 2026 results release). The monthly distribution is $0.0965 per unit, or $1.158 a year.

A payout ratio under 70% on funds from operations is the number that matters for an income holding. It is the margin between the distribution you are buying and the distribution the business can actually fund. Our Canadian REIT rankings rank twelve trusts on exactly that measure, and retail REITs against industrial REITs works through why the retail side of the market looks stronger than it has in a decade.

The technical picture. The current golden-cross regime began on August 15, 2025 at $16.84 and price is up 22.5% inside it, with a worst drawdown of 0.6% along the way. That is an unusually clean trend for a REIT.

The precedent, computed. Eight completed golden-cross regimes in ten years, median peak gain 4.9%, best 55.1%, and a new all-time high in two of eight. The current regime has already outrun the median by a wide margin, which is either the signal working or the setup for the giveback. The record does not tell you which, and a page that claimed otherwise would be overselling eight observations.

The risk. Canadian consumer credit, development execution, and the interest expense on a debt stack that reprices as older bonds mature.

A note on the gap. We have no multi-year chart from RioCan’s own annual filings on this page. The trust does not file with the SEC, and building a five-year series from its annual reports was beyond this update. It is logged and it will be added.

5. Enbridge (ENB)

The macro reason. Enbridge moves crude oil and natural gas across North America on take-or-pay and cost-of-service contracts that make it far closer to a toll road than to a producer. Commodity prices matter to its customers and only indirectly to it. What matters to Enbridge is interest expense, regulatory outcomes, and its ability to keep spending capital at a return above its cost of capital. Management reaffirmed 2026 guidance of $20.2 billion to $20.8 billion of adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow per share of $5.70 to $6.10, and put the secured growth backlog at $41 billion.

Why it ranks fifth. This is the largest dividend on the list and, per dollar, close to the least improved by the account holding it. Enbridge pays eligible Canadian dividends. In a taxable account those receive the dividend tax credit. Inside an RRSP that credit is gone and the money eventually comes out as ordinary income. The RRSP still shelters the compounding, which is worth having, but the reader who has both a taxable account and an RRSP should think hard about which one holds this. That is a genuinely uncomfortable conclusion for a page about RRSP stocks, and it is the correct one.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 GAAP earnings attributable to common shareholders were $1,396 million, or $0.64 per share, against $2,177 million and $1.00 a year earlier, with the decline driven by non-cash changes in the value of derivatives rather than by operations. Adjusted earnings were $1,382 million, or $0.63 per share, against $1,418 million and $0.65. Adjusted EBITDA was $4,776 million against $4,644 million. Cash from operating activities was $4,111 million against $3,238 million. Rolling twelve-month debt to EBITDA was 5.1 times, which the company attributes in part to translating period-end debt at 1.42 CAD/USD against a trailing average of 1.38. The board declared a quarterly common dividend of $0.9700 on July 27, 2026, payable September 1. All figures from Enbridge’s second-quarter 2026 results release.

Dividends paid per share went from $3.34 in 2021 to $3.77 in 2025, which is 3.1% a year. At the current $0.97 quarterly rate the 2026 run rate is $3.88, another 2.9%. Set that against the 5% medium-term growth the company guides to for EBITDA, earnings and distributable cash flow, and the gap is deliberate: Enbridge is growing the dividend slower than the cash flow behind it, which is how a payout ratio comes down. Against the low end of guidance, $5.70 of distributable cash flow per share, the $3.88 dividend is 68% of it. Against the high end it is 64%. That calculation is ours, from the company’s own guidance and its own declared dividend.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $73.11 and the 200-day is $70.61, so the regime that began January 12, 2024 at $41.73 is still technically a golden cross and still up 58.7%. Price at $66.23 is 9.4% below the 50-day and 6.2% below the 200-day, the largest such gap on this list. A stock trading below both averages inside a golden-cross regime is a regime in the process of ending.

The precedent, computed. Only four completed golden-cross regimes exist in ten years of daily data, with a median peak gain of 19.1% and a new high in three of four. Four observations is not a base rate and should not be used as one. The death-cross record is slightly larger at four completed regimes, median peak 10.3%, none making a new high. The most useful fact in the table is not a median at all: Enbridge’s crossovers are rare, its regimes are long, and the current one has run for more than two and a half years.

The risk. Leverage at 5.1 times, regulatory and permitting risk on both sides of the border, and a dividend whose growth rate is already below inflation in some years.

6. Fortis (FTS)

The macro reason. Fortis is a regulated utility holding company, with ten utilities across Canada, the United States and the Caribbean, earning a regulated return on an approved rate base. That is about as close to a bond with an equity ticker as the TSX offers. It rises when rates fall and struggles when they rise, and its earnings are essentially independent of the economy. The company’s $28.8 billion capital plan for 2026 through 2030 is forecast to lift midyear rate base from $42.4 billion in 2025 to $57.9 billion in 2030, with 46% of the spend on transmission and 31% on distribution.

Why it ranks sixth. A 3.40% eligible Canadian dividend that has been raised for 52 consecutive years, with guidance for 4% to 6% annual growth through 2030. No treaty saving, and the same dividend tax credit sacrifice as Enbridge, but a far more predictable stream to shelter and a far more predictable stream to withdraw from in retirement. For a reader whose RRSP is meant to fund a specific retirement date, this is the holding on the list whose income is easiest to forecast.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 net earnings attributable to common shareholders were $396 million against $384 million a year earlier, with earnings per share of $0.78 against $0.76 and revenue of $2,931 million against $2,815 million. Capital spending in the first half was $2.7 billion against a 2026 plan of $5.6 billion. All from the Fortis June 30, 2026 Quarter Report, news release page 1 and Summary of Quarterly Results page 19, with the capital plan on page 16 of the interim MD&A and the dividend record on page 7.

Declared dividends went from $2.08 to $2.51 per share across those five years, 4.8% a year, which lands inside the company’s own guided range. Earnings per share rose from $2.61 to $3.40 over the same period, faster than the dividend, which is the pattern you want: the payout ratio is falling while the streak continues.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $78.71 and the 200-day is $75.54. Price at $75.36 is 4.3% below the 50-day and fractionally below the 200-day, inside a golden-cross regime that started May 10, 2024 at $51.26 and is up 47.0%.

The precedent, computed. Six completed golden-cross regimes, median peak gain 6.1%, best 46.4%, with a new high in three of six. Six completed death crosses, median peak gain 6.1%, best 8.0%, none making a new high. Those two medians being identical is the most honest summary of Fortis as a trading vehicle: the signal has had almost no predictive value here. Utilities are bought for their cash flows, and the chart agrees.

The risk. Rate-case outcomes, the cost of debt on a heavily financed balance sheet, and the fact that a bond substitute gets repriced whenever bonds do. Our BoC rate-sensitive coverage explains that relationship in more detail.

7. Royal Bank of Canada (RY)

The macro reason. Canada’s largest bank by profit, with the capital markets, wealth and personal banking franchises to match. Bank earnings turn on the net interest margin, credit losses and the capital ratio. With the policy rate at 2.25%, margins are compressing from the peak while credit is holding better than the consensus feared eighteen months ago.

Why it ranks seventh. This is not a quality judgment. Royal Bank is the most profitable bank in the country and it is our number one pick on the Canadian bank stock rankings, where the Big Six are compared head to head on capital and returns. It ranks seventh here because a 2.47% eligible dividend is the smallest amount of income to shelter among the payers on this list, and because that dividend is exactly the kind of income the Canadian tax system already treats kindly outside registration.

The filings. Third-quarter 2026 net income was $6,024 million, up 11% year over year, on revenue of $18,538 million, with diluted earnings per share of $4.23 and return on equity of 17.9%. Adjusted net income was $6,101 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share $4.28, with adjusted return on equity of 18.1%. The CET1 ratio was 13.5% and total provisions for credit losses were $1,000 million. All from RBC’s third-quarter 2026 release page 1 and page 5, the supplementary package page 4 and page 5, and the report to shareholders page 4. Our full read of that quarter is in RBC’s Q3 2026 results.

Net income went from $16.1 billion in fiscal 2021 to $20.4 billion in fiscal 2025, through a dip in fiscal 2023 when provisions rose and the HSBC Canada acquisition was absorbed. Dividends paid on common shares over the same five years went from $6,158 million to $8,502 million, up 38%, which is the shareholder-facing version of the same story.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $292.29 and the 200-day is $251.44. Price at $285.20 is 2.4% below the 50-day and 13.4% above the 200-day, inside a golden-cross regime that began June 11, 2025 at $168.57 and is up 69.2%.

The precedent, computed. Seven completed golden-cross regimes in ten years, median peak gain 9.7%, best 54.7%, worst 1.6%, with a new all-time high in four of seven. The current regime’s 69.2% gain is already outside the range of all but one completed regime, which says the trend has been extraordinary rather than that it will continue.

The risk. Credit normalization, a housing market that has not been tested at this rate level for long, and the simple fact that buying the best bank after a 69% run is a different proposition from buying it before one.

8. Intact Financial (IFC)

The macro reason. Intact describes itself in its own filings as the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada, with operations across North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe. Its economics turn on the combined ratio, which is claims and expenses as a percentage of premiums, and on the investment income earned on float. Hard market conditions let it raise prices; catastrophe seasons take some of that back. Climate-driven catastrophe frequency is the structural question hanging over the whole sector.

Why it ranks eighth. Most of the return here is capital gain rather than income, and a capital gain is already tax-deferred in a taxable account until you sell, with only half of it taxable when you do. The RRSP still adds value, but less than it does for anything higher on this list. The 2.28% dividend is the smallest of the reliable payers here.

The filings. Second-quarter 2026 was a poor quarter and the page should say so. The combined ratio was 94.9% against 86.1% a year earlier, including four points from elevated catastrophe and large losses. Net operating income per share was $3.17 against $5.23, down 39%, with $1.08 of that gap attributable to catastrophe and large losses above expectations. Earnings per share were $3.90. Book value per share was $111.73, up 3% sequentially and 13% year over year, and operating return on equity for the trailing twelve months was 17.0% against 16.3%. The board declared a quarterly dividend of $1.47 per common share, payable September 29, 2026. All from Intact’s second-quarter 2026 press release.

The distinction that matters: a bad quarter caused by weather is not the same as a bad quarter caused by underwriting. Personal auto ran an 88.8% combined ratio and personal property 103.0%, which is where the hail and wind went. Book value still grew 13% year over year and the trailing return on equity still printed 17.0%. That is a business absorbing a shock, not one losing its footing.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $279.85 and the 200-day is $268.17. Price at $257.52 is 8.0% below the 50-day and 4.0% below the 200-day. The golden cross that fired on June 19, 2026 at $277.96 is down 7.4% and under water.

The precedent, computed. This is the most striking record on the page. Across five completed golden-cross regimes in ten years, Intact made a new all-time high in five of five, with a median peak gain of 27.1% and a median 302 days to that peak. Five observations is a small sample and a 100% hit rate on five events is not a 100% probability on the sixth. It is still worth stating, because the current regime is the first of the six to be under water this early, and a reader deserves to know both that the historical record is unusually good and that the present instance is not tracking it.

The risk. Catastrophe frequency, reserve adequacy on the commercial book, and integration across three countries.

A note on the gap. As with RioCan, there is no multi-year chart here from Intact’s own annual filings. Intact does not file with the SEC and its quarterly documents carry two-year comparatives rather than five. Logged, and it will be added.

9. Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD)

The macro reason. Convenience stores and fuel across North America, Europe and Asia. The economics are a spread business: fuel gross margin per gallon, plus in-store merchandise margin on the customers the fuel brings in. Fuel margins have been unusually strong through the current cycle, and the long-term risk is the electric transition reducing the number of reasons to stop.

Why it ranks ninth. A dividend of 84 Canadian cents declared for fiscal 2026 against an $80.50 share price is roughly a 1% yield. There is almost nothing to shelter. What the account does provide is deferral on the capital gain, which for a genuine compounder over decades is not nothing, but it is a fraction of what it does for the names above.

The filings. First-quarter fiscal 2027, for the twelve weeks ended July 19, 2026, produced revenue of $21,704.8 million against $17,346.9 million, up 25.1%, with merchandise and service revenues of $4,884.9 million, up 4.1%. Adjusted EBITDA was $1,783.1 million, up 10.5%. Diluted earnings per share were $0.90 against $0.82, and adjusted diluted earnings per share $0.90 against $0.78, up 15.4%. Reporting currency is US dollars. All from the Couche-Tard first-quarter fiscal 2027 press release of September 1, 2026. Our read of that quarter is in Couche-Tard’s fuel-margin-powered quarter.

The dividend has grown 16.6% a year from 53 cents to 84 cents, which is the fastest growth rate on this page by a distance. That is what a low yield on a growing payout looks like early: the shelter is small now and gets larger every year. A reader thirty years from retirement can reasonably argue this belongs higher than ninth on a page about compounding. A reader five years out cannot.

The technical picture. The 50-day average is $88.20 and the 200-day is $80.70. Price at $80.50 is 8.7% below the 50-day and fractionally below the 200-day, inside a golden-cross regime dating to September 29, 2025 at $72.97 that is up 10.3%.

The precedent, computed. Six completed golden-cross regimes, median peak gain 6.5%, best 96.1%, with a new high in three of six. Six completed death-cross regimes, median peak gain 11.9%, and a new high in none of six. The distribution is heavily skewed: the two regimes that worked, in 2018 and 2021, produced 48% and 96%, and the other four produced almost nothing. Medians hide that. A page that quoted only the median would understate both the opportunity and the frequency of failure.

The risk. Fuel margin normalization, the electric transition, and an acquisition record that has been excellent and is not guaranteed to stay that way.

10. Dollarama (DOL)

The macro reason. Canada’s dominant value retailer, with 1,719 stores in Canada as of May 3, 2026, a stake in Dollarcity in Latin America and a new Australian business. It is one of the few retailers that benefits from a weak consumer, because a shopper trading down is a shopper walking in.

Why it ranks tenth, and why that is not a criticism. The dividend is $0.12 a quarter, a yield of 0.29%. There is essentially no income to shelter. Every dollar of RRSP room spent here buys deferral on a future capital gain and nothing else, and RRSP room is the most valuable in Canada precisely because of what it does to dividends. This is our argument for holding Dollarama in a TFSA instead, where the eventual gain is never taxed at all rather than taxed as ordinary income on withdrawal. Ranking it tenth here is a statement about the account, not about the company, and the account comparison further down sets out which holdings belong where.

The filings. First-quarter fiscal 2027, the thirteen weeks ended May 3, 2026, produced sales of $1,846.1 million against $1,521.2 million, up 21.4%, with Canadian comparable store sales up 5.6%. Gross margin was 43.9% against 44.2%, EBITDA margin 31.6% against 32.6%, net earnings $302.3 million against $273.8 million, and diluted earnings per share $1.11 against $0.98, up 13.3%. The declared dividend was $0.12 per common share against $0.1058. All from the Dollarama first-quarter fiscal 2027 release of June 11, 2026.

Revenue compounded at 13.8% a year over those five fiscal years, from $4.33 billion to $7.26 billion. Dividends declared per share more than doubled over the same stretch, from $0.2012 to $0.4232, and the yield still rounds to nothing, because the share price grew faster than both.

The technical picture. This is the worst chart on the page. The 50-day average is $184.92 and the 200-day is $186.70, so the stock is in a death-cross regime that began August 31, 2026 at $175.07. Price at $167.11 is 9.6% below the 50-day and 10.5% below the 200-day. A golden cross that fired two weeks earlier, on August 14 at $191.58, failed on day one and is already 8.6% under water. That whipsaw is a warning in itself.

The precedent, computed. Five completed death-cross regimes in ten years, median peak gain 5.2%, best 17.5%, and a new all-time high in none of five. Six completed golden-cross regimes, median peak gain 28.2%, best 145.7%, new high in three of six. The honest summary: across the five completed death-cross regimes measured here, none produced a new high inside the regime, and this one arrived with the stock already 19% below its high.

What is next. Dollarama reports second-quarter fiscal 2027 results on September 16, 2026, covering the thirteen weeks to August 2. That is four days after this page was rebuilt, and it will move the stock more than anything written here.

What Came Off the List, and Why

The previous version of this page ranked eight holdings and led with Royal Bank, TD, Fortis and Canadian National. Four names are not in the ten above. Dropping a name silently is the part readers should distrust most, so here is each one.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD). Nothing is wrong with the business that would keep it off a general Canadian list. It is off this one because a page ranked on account fit does not need two large Canadian banks, and between the two Royal Bank has the higher return on equity. TD’s full case, with its capital position and its cleanup costs set against the others, is on the bank rankings linked in the Royal Bank section above.

Canadian National Railway (CNR). A 2.16% dividend on a capital-intensive business whose earnings move with freight volumes. In the account-fit frame it sits in the same bucket as Couche-Tard and Dollarama, where the RRSP contributes deferral rather than tax saved, and one name from that bucket is enough at the top of the list. It has not been replaced by anything better; it has been replaced by a different question.

Metro (MRU). Same reasoning at a 1.85% yield, and Canadian grocery is already represented in the ranking indirectly through RioCan’s tenant base.

The old “US picks” section. The previous page carried a block of US names sourced from a third-party data aggregator, with prices dated August 28, 2026. Those figures are now four weeks stale and, more importantly, aggregator-sourced company data is not something we publish any more. The US names on this page are in the main ranking, where they belong, with every figure taken from the company’s own filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Two names from the 2023 version of this page deserve a note as well, because readers who saved it may wonder. Algonquin Power cut its dividend twice, from about 25 cents a quarter in 2022 to about 15 cents in 2023 and about 9 cents from late 2024, on its own payment record. A utility that has reset its dividend twice in three years does not belong on a page about income you can plan around. Savaria remains an interesting small-cap and is simply too small and too illiquid for a page whose entire premise is income you can rely on for decades.

Where To Buy These Stocks

Three of the ten holdings above are US-listed, and capturing the treaty exemption on them requires a self-directed RRSP that can hold US dollars without converting your dividends every quarter. That is the single feature to check before you open anything.

We hold our own research accounts at Questrade, where Canadian and US stock and ETF trades carry no commission, registered accounts are dual-currency at no charge so US dividends stay in US dollars inside the RRSP, and client assets carry CIPF coverage through its CIRO membership. The best broker for beginners is the better starting point if this is your first account. If you would rather hold Canadian-listed holdings only and never think about currency, Wealthsimple is the simpler option, with the trade-off set out in the review linked earlier.

Whichever you choose, the account type matters more than the brand: it has to be self-directed, and for the top three names it has to be dual-currency.

RRSP or TFSA: Which Account Holds Which Stock

The question underneath this whole page. Both accounts shelter growth. They differ on what goes in, what comes out, and what the American government does on the way through.

	RRSP	TFSA
Contributions	Deductible from income	Not deductible
Withdrawals	Fully taxed as ordinary income	Not taxed
Room after withdrawal	Gone permanently (except HBP and LLP)	Returns the following January 1
US dividends	Exempt from the 15% withholding	15% withheld, unrecoverable
Canadian eligible dividends	Dividend tax credit forgone	Dividend tax credit forgone
2026 limit	$33,810 or 18% of prior-year earned income	$7,000
Best suited to	US dividend payers, REITs, bonds and interest, high income now and lower income later	Growth, Canadian equities you may need to sell, anyone in a low bracket today

The practical rule that falls out of it: US dividend payers and anything taxed as ordinary income go in the RRSP. Growth goes in the TFSA. Our TFSA stock rankings are built on the other half of that split and rank a deliberately different set of names, with Shopify first. The TFSA rules guide covers the limits and the withdrawal timing that trips people up, and our TFSA contribution room calculator works out your number.

Two complications worth knowing. If your income today is lower than the income you expect in retirement, the deduction is worth less now than the tax will cost later, and the TFSA wins on arithmetic alone. And if you are saving for a first home rather than for retirement, the FHSA beats both, because it is the only account that gives you a deduction on the way in and tax-free money on the way out. Our guide to which account to fill first puts numbers on all three, including the withdrawal tax rate at which an RRSP stops beating a TFSA.

The 2026 RRSP Contribution Limit and Deadline

Your deduction limit is the sum of your unused room carried forward plus the lesser of 18% of your prior-year earned income and the annual dollar limit, minus your pension adjustment if you belong to a workplace pension.

Tax year	RRSP dollar limit	Deadline to contribute
2025	$32,490	March 2, 2026
2026	$33,810	March 1, 2027
2027	$35,390	February 29, 2028

Dollar limits are from the Canada Revenue Agency’s MP, DB, RRSP, DPSP, ALDA and TFSA limits table. The deadline is the sixtieth day of the following year, moved to the next business day when it falls on a weekend, which is why the 2025 deadline was March 2 and the 2026 deadline is March 1.

Your actual number is on your notice of assessment and in CRA My Account, and it is almost never the headline figure, because the headline is a ceiling rather than an entitlement. Our RRSP contribution room calculator reproduces the arithmetic, and the RRSP rules guide works through earned income, the pension adjustment and the $2,000 over-contribution cushion in full.

One detail that costs people money every year: contributing and deducting are two separate decisions. You may contribute this year and carry the deduction forward to a year when your income, and therefore your marginal rate, is higher. For someone early in their career, that is frequently the better move. Our RRSP tax refund calculator shows the difference.

Is an RRSP Worth It?

For most working Canadians, yes, and the reason is narrower than the usual answer.

The deduction is not free money. It is a deferral: you skip tax at today’s marginal rate and pay it at your rate when you withdraw. The RRSP wins to the extent that your retirement rate is lower than your working rate, and it wins on the tax-free compounding in between regardless. Somebody earning $150,000 today who will draw $60,000 in retirement is arbitraging a large rate difference. Somebody earning $45,000 today who expects a pension and full benefits later may find the TFSA the better account and should run that comparison before contributing.

Three things tilt the answer toward the RRSP that the standard analysis leaves out:

• The treaty exemption, worth 15% of every US dividend, which no other account gives you and which the arithmetic above values at roughly $80,000 on a single year’s room over thirty years.
• The refund is investable. A $33,810 contribution at a 43% marginal rate returns about $14,500. Contributing that refund rather than spending it is what turns the deduction from a deferral into an actual increase in capital.
• Room does not come back. TFSA room returns the January after a withdrawal. RRSP room does not, outside the Home Buyers’ Plan and the Lifelong Learning Plan. That makes the RRSP a worse emergency fund and a better commitment device, which for many savers is the point.

Against that: withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income, they can claw back income-tested benefits, and at 71 the account stops being optional. Those are covered below.

How To Fund an RRSP

Four methods, and they are not equivalent.

Electronic funds transfer from your bank. The default. Usually one to three business days to settle before the cash is tradeable, which matters enormously in the last week of February when the deadline is days away.

Pre-authorized contributions. A fixed amount pulled on a schedule. This is the method most likely to produce a fully funded RRSP, because it removes the annual decision entirely and it buys through both good and bad markets. If you do nothing else on this page, set one of these up.

Direct transfer from another institution. Moving an existing RRSP from a bank branch or another broker. It does not use contribution room and is not a taxable event, provided the money goes institution to institution. Ask the receiving broker for the transfer form. Do not withdraw and redeposit, which converts a transfer into a contribution and can manufacture an over-contribution out of nothing.

Contribution in kind. Moving shares you already own from a taxable account into your RRSP. This is a contribution at fair market value and a deemed disposition, so a gain is taxable in the year of transfer and, importantly, a loss on an in-kind contribution is denied. Never transfer a losing position in kind. Sell it, claim the loss, contribute the cash. Our adjusted cost base tracker matters here, because the deemed disposition is measured against your ACB and not against what you think you paid.

Debit card and credit card contributions are not generally available at discount brokers, and a cheque deposit at a branch still works but takes the longest to clear. Neither is worth planning around.

Where To Open an RRSP in Canada, and How

Your options. A bank branch, a full-service advisor, a robo-advisor, or a self-directed discount brokerage. Only the last two are relevant if you intend to hold the names on this page yourself, and only a self-directed account lets you buy individual stocks.

The steps, start to finish.

1. Choose the account type. Self-directed RRSP, individual rather than spousal unless you have specifically decided otherwise, and dual-currency if you want the US names. 2. Apply online. Personal details, Social Insurance Number, employment and income, and the regulatory questions about investment knowledge and objectives that every Canadian broker is required to ask. 3. Verify your identity. Usually electronic and instant. Occasionally a document upload. 4. Fund the account by one of the four methods above. 5. Place your first trade. How to buy your first stock walks through the order screen itself, and how to read a stock quote explains the numbers on it.

Expect the whole process to take a day or two from application to first trade, most of which is waiting for money to move. If you are opening in late February against the deadline, start a week early.

Withdrawals, the Home Buyers’ Plan, and Turning 71

Withdrawals are taxed twice over, in a sense. Your institution withholds tax immediately, and then the full amount is added to your income for the year, so the withholding is a down payment rather than the bill.

Amount withdrawn	Withholding outside Quebec	Withholding in Quebec
Up to $5,000	10%	5%
$5,001 to $15,000	20%	10%
More than $15,000	30%	15%

Rates from the CRA’s tax rates on withdrawals. Non-residents face 25% unless a treaty reduces it. And the room you used is gone for good.

The Home Buyers’ Plan lets a first-time buyer withdraw up to $60,000 tax-free toward a home, repayable over fifteen years. For first withdrawals made between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028, the start of that repayment period is deferred to the fifth year after the withdrawal year, so a 2026 withdrawal begins repayment in 2031. Our Home Buyers’ Plan guide covers the qualifying conditions, the 89-day rule and what happens when a repayment is missed, and you can use the HBP and an FHSA for the same purchase.

At 71, the account ends. By December 31 of the year you turn 71, an RRSP must be collapsed, converted to a RRIF, or used to buy an annuity. Almost everybody converts to a RRIF, which then forces a minimum withdrawal every year, rising with age. That minimum is what turns a tax-deferral strategy into a taxable income stream you do not control, and it is the mechanism behind OAS clawback for retirees who saved well. Our RRIF minimum withdrawal calculator gives you the number, why your RRIF minimum rises every year explains the schedule, and the OAS clawback covers what happens when that minimum pushes your income past the threshold. The timing of when to take CPP interacts with all of it.

This is the strongest argument for holding growth in a TFSA and income in an RRSP that nobody makes early enough: everything in the RRSP eventually comes out as taxable income, on a schedule the government sets.

What You Can Hold in an RRSP

Cash, GICs, most securities listed on a designated stock exchange in Canada or abroad, mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, and certain shares of small business corporations. Individual US-listed shares qualify, which is what makes the treaty exemption reachable in the first place.

What you cannot hold: private company shares where you or a related party hold a significant interest, most cryptocurrency held directly, land, and personal property. The penalty for holding a non-qualified investment is 50% of its fair market value, which is severe enough that it is worth checking before buying anything unusual. Your issuer may also apply internal policies narrower than the CRA’s list.

For readers who want the mechanics of ownership itself rather than the rules, what a stock is and what you actually own and how the stock market works are the two primers worth reading before your first purchase.

How We Ranked These Ten

The criterion is stated at the top and applied consistently: what the account saves on the holding, then whether the income behind that saving survives.

What counted.

• Treaty saving, computed as the current yield multiplied by 15%, for US-listed holdings only.
• Shelter value, judged by how the income would be taxed outside registration. Ordinary income and REIT distributions rank above eligible Canadian dividends, which already receive the dividend tax credit outside the account.
• Durability, from the filings: payout ratio, leverage, the direction of earnings, the length and consistency of the dividend record.
• The macro and technical picture, including the full crossover distribution rather than the single instance that suits the argument. Every median on this page is reported with the number of observations behind it.

What did not count. Analyst price targets. Momentum for its own sake. Anything from a data aggregator: every company figure here traces to a filing, and where we could not source something first-hand we said so rather than filling the hole.

What would change the ranking. A dividend cut anywhere in the top five. A change to Article XXI of the tax convention, which would collapse the entire premise. A materially different rate environment, which would reprice the four rate-sensitive holdings at once. We revisit this page each quarter as the filings land.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best RRSP stocks in Canada right now?

On the criterion this page uses, which is what the account saves you rather than which company is best in the abstract, the top three are US-listed: Realty Income, Verizon and PepsiCo, because only an RRSP exempts their dividends from the 15% US withholding tax. The strongest Canadian holdings for the account are RioCan, whose distributions are taxed as ordinary income everywhere else, followed by Enbridge and Fortis. The full ranking, with the filings behind each name, is above.

Should I hold US stocks in my RRSP or my TFSA?

In the RRSP, if they pay meaningful dividends. Article XXI(2) of the Canada-United States tax convention exempts dividends paid into an RRSP from the 15% US withholding tax, and the IRS confirmed that reading for RRSPs in Private Letter Ruling 200810013. In a TFSA the 15% is withheld and cannot be recovered, because the income never enters your Canadian return. The exemption only applies to US-listed shares or US-domiciled funds held directly. A Canadian-listed ETF holding US stocks pays the tax at the fund level before the money reaches your account.

What is the RRSP contribution limit for 2026?

The 2026 RRSP dollar limit is $33,810, and your own limit is the lesser of that and 18% of your 2025 earned income, plus unused room carried forward, minus any pension adjustment. The deadline to contribute for the 2026 tax year is March 1, 2027. The 2027 dollar limit is $35,390.

Can I hold S&P 500 index funds in my RRSP?

Yes, and the structure matters. A US-domiciled S&P 500 ETF held in an RRSP receives its dividends free of the 15% withholding under the treaty. A Canadian-listed fund that holds the same stocks pays that tax at the fund level before distributing anything, so the exemption is lost even though the account is the same. The difference is 15% of whatever the fund yields, which on a broad index fund is small in any single year and not small over thirty.

Are dividends taxed inside an RRSP?

Not while they stay inside it. Canadian and US dividends both compound untaxed within the plan, and US dividends additionally escape the 15% American withholding. What is taxed is the withdrawal: every dollar you take out is ordinary income at your full marginal rate, whatever it was earned as. That is why a Canadian eligible dividend, which enjoys the dividend tax credit outside registration, gains the least from being held inside.

Can I use my RRSP to buy a house?

Yes. The Home Buyers’ Plan allows a first-time buyer to withdraw up to $60,000 tax-free toward a qualifying home, repaid over fifteen years. For first withdrawals made between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028, repayment starts in the fifth year after the withdrawal year. You can combine it with an FHSA withdrawal for the same purchase, and the FHSA is never repaid.

How many stocks should I hold in an RRSP?

Enough that no single failure changes your retirement date. For most people that means a core of broad funds with individual names sized deliberately around them, rather than ten equally weighted positions chosen from a list. The ranking on this page is a research starting point, not a portfolio.

Is it better to buy dividend stocks or growth stocks in an RRSP?

Dividend stocks, on the tax alone, and specifically US dividend stocks. Growth produces capital gains, which are already tax-advantaged outside registration and completely tax-free inside a TFSA, so putting them in an RRSP converts a gain that would have been half-taxed into a withdrawal that is fully taxed. Income, especially US income, is what the RRSP is built for.

What happens to my RRSP at 71?

By December 31 of the year you turn 71 the plan must be collapsed, converted to a RRIF, or used to buy an annuity. Most people convert to a RRIF and begin the minimum withdrawals, which rise as a percentage of the account every year. Those withdrawals are ordinary income and can trigger the OAS clawback, which is why the composition of the account matters long before you reach that date.

Does an RRSP protect me from a market crash?

No. It is a tax wrapper, not a hedge. What it changes is the tax treatment of your income and gains, not the risk of holding the assets. A 30% decline is a 30% decline in any account, and the only thing that softens it is the time you have before the money is needed. If you have never sat through one, corrections against bear markets is the useful primer.

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Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Share prices and moving averages are computed from Yahoo Finance dividend-adjusted closes and reflect the September 11, 2026 close. Every company financial figure comes from that company’s own filing, named beside it. RRSP rules and limits are from the Canada Revenue Agency at canada.ca, and the withholding tax treatment is from the Canada-United States tax convention and IRS Private Letter Ruling 200810013.