At the death of one spouse, the surviving spouse can transfer the assets within the deceased spouse's TFSA to their own TFSA – by being named either the successor account holder or the beneficiary – without requiring new TFSA contribution room.

If a spouse dies with unused TFSA room, however, that room dies with them and, unlike with an RRSP, an estate cannot contribute to a TFSA. Instead, the unused room is simply gone forever.