A Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is the ideal registered account for accumulating retirement savings. Any income earned inside the account is tax-free. However, any withdrawal is treated like income and taxed accordingly.
In your core earning years, you want to be accumulating and investing your RRSP (and collecting the nice tax rebate). In retirement, you want to be withdrawing from your RRSP when your income is lower.
If you are retired (or nearing retirement) and looking to draw on your RRSP soon, it is wise to reduce risk in your portfolio and focus on more defensive stocks. You want to be sure that your RRSP income will last as long as possible.
If you are wondering what kind of stocks are worth holding in the RRSP, Fortis (TSX:FTS) and Granite Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:GRT.UN) are two core holdings to consider.
A top utility stock for an RRSP
With a market cap of $36 billion, Fortis is one of the largest pure-play utilities listed on the TSX. It has nine regulated utilities that are diversified across Canada and the United States. The diversification protects it from overexposure to any one regulator, province, or geography.
Likewise, with 94% of its business from transmission and distribution, it has very little exposure to commodity fluctuations or energy demand variables. It provides services (like power or natural gas) that people and businesses need. Customers have no choice but to accept power/gas that runs through its infrastructure.
Fortis’s regulated business caps its growth to an extent. Yet Fortis still expects to grow its rate base at a 7% compounded annual rate in the years ahead. Its capital plan is low risk and relatively straightforward to execute.
After a strong year (its stock is up 19% in 2025), its yield has compressed to 3.6%. This may be a case where you must pay up for quality. Fortis has a 52-year track record of annually growing its dividend.
The company projects 4-6% compounded annual dividend growth for the coming five years. Fortis may not be growing fast, but it is a good bet for steady, growing income.
A top real estate investment trust for income in a registered plan
With a market cap of $4.7 billion, Granite REIT is the largest industrial REIT on the TSX. It owns 60 million square feet of manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing space across Canada, the U.S., and Europe.
It has a high-quality tenant base with long-term leases (over 5.5 years). Its occupancy has risen over 97% this year, and that has supported 8% cash flow-per-unit growth for the first nine months of the year.
The REIT is very conservatively managed with low leverage and a sector-leading balance sheet. That has supported 15 years of consecutive distribution increases.
Its payout ratio has declined in the past few years, so Granite recently increased its dividend at a higher rate than previously. Today, Granite yields 4.4%. Its stock trades below its private market value, so it still looks like an attractive time to add to an RRSP.
The RRSP takeaway
When you are accumulating in your RRSP, you can own some higher-risk bets. However, when you are in retirement and planning to withdraw income from the RRSP, you want steady, solid stocks for dividends and capital preservation. Stocks like Granite and Fortis fit the bill nicely when investing for retirement in your RRSP.
