Jon said: "Graham, when you say getting income from RRBs may be a pain in retirement, I presume you're talking about getting their income in sync with RRIF minimum withdrawal strategies?"
There is a much easier and IMO better alternative to employing RRBs in your RRIF or TFSA for generating a safe retirement income. An inflation-indexed life annuity will provide similar protection, a higher income and much better utility. Investment management is included and all the issues with RRIF withdrawals go away.
Any strategy I recommend has to be practical, appropriate and fully understood by the client. Most retirees I meet have other things they are doing with their time and they don’t want to worry about the market
Even if you have the desire to DIY with RRBs, a great idea/strategy can easily get botched in the execution. Unless you are familiar with bond trading, the complexities specific to RRBs and most importantly sustainable income planning, I wouldn’t recommend that approach
As an advisor, if a strategy isn’t doable by my mother and/or my grandmother then it doesn’t pass my “low-stress & simplicity” sniff test.
That said, a straight forward RRB “accumulation” strategy in an RRSP or TFSA is much less complex. Especially with stripped RRBs.
My motto: