Can a TFSA be invested in a life annuity?

A reader spends months trying to set up a life annuity inside a TFSA after reading it could be done, only to be turned away by company after company. This piece settles the confusion: a true life annuity can't be held within a TFSA, even though some variable, fund-style insurance products can, which is likely where the mixed messages come from. More helpfully, it steps back to ask whether the strategy was even worth the trouble. Moving TFSA money into an annuity would trade away the account's flexibility, its tax-free growth, and the ability to leave whatever remains to your beneficiaries, since a life annuity typically ends when you do. There are also possible effects on income-tested benefits to weigh. For anyone drawn to the idea of guaranteed lifetime income, it's a grounded look at what you'd be giving up to chase it.