LIRA (Locked In RRSP) | Your stories | Discussion forum

I know that some,but by no means all, credit unions have them. It might be worth your while to look around your province.

Here is one in Saskatchewan that does: http://www.leroycu.ca/ At least this tells you it's possible.

In Ontario, DUCA seems to offer them, but it is not very obvious from their website.

I think this is one question where you need to ask individual institutions. Some of them do offer it, but tend to assume it under the general label of RSP/RIF rather than get into detail about it in their websites.

Brimleychen said

Any suggestion where to open LIRA account? I only see the big banks and lifecos for these. Do you have any other alternatives? Thanks in advance.

Forgive me if this follow-up question states the obvious, but sometimes, people are quick to "chime in" with their "best solutions" without fully understanding what the OP is asking. Are you trying to open a brand new Locked-In RRSP, trying to consolidate former pension plan assets into one Locked-In RRSP or just transferring one former pension plan (DC or DB) from a recent former employer into a Locked-In RRSP?

If it is the former, a locked-in RRSP (or LIRA) is simply a regular RRSP with the proviso that funds are "locked in" until age 65 (there are certain provisions for unlocking at age 55 in some provinces or under certain other circumstances that can get quite technical and for which I'll spare you). If you have a regular RRSP, there's no benefit to a locked-in RRSP. If you're over 65, you may even be able to co-mingle your former pension assets into a regular RRSP or, at the very least, into one RRIF. Check with your financial advisor for details.

If it's one of the latter, generally, self-directed discount brokerages and full-service brokerages are your best bet for more complex locked-in RRSP plans of former pension plan assets and can provide you with a T2151 CRA form to transfer-in or consolidate assets (either the CRA form or a customized version for their brokerage) along with your current pension plan statement is usually all that is required (besides account opening forms, if done then). The brokerages will even usually reimburse you any transfer out fee(s) charged by your pension plan administrator, up to between $125-$150 per account (not per person). As well, the banks are often very reluctant to reimburse such fees. And besides, you can hold most savings accounts and many GICs from different providers with different brokerages.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Doug

I find it interesting how the gov't can be so concerned about boxing in LIRAs so that you can't take the money out too soon etc., claiming to protect us from our folly, yet they permit a lot of risky investments.

A family member has asked me a question, maybe someone here knows.

He likes to change employers every few years, so now he's got a few former defined contribution pension plan amounts from various employers (coincidentally, so far all plans had been run by Manulife), so my understanding is these are now all separate LIRA accounts. At the rate he's going by retirement time he'll have a lot of these things kicking around in various places.

He's thinking of consolidating them into a single LIRA account he will open at, say, TD Direct Investing. Presently these LIRAs contain various Manulife mutual funds, I think designed only for workplace pension plans (I'm guessing they're copies of Manulife mutual funds offered outside of workplace pension plans). The plan is, once he's directly transferred them into his new TD Direct Investing LIRA account, to sell/redeem these mutual funds and then buy the investments he wants in the account.

Will this work?

Bill, are you sure that what your relative has is LIRAs? With the one I used to have (I emptied it a couple of years ago), I was given the option by the employer as to where I wanted it to be transferred to and could move it around wherever I wanted by transfers, like a RSP/RIF. Accordingly, if I'd had more than one, it wouldn't have been difficult to amalgamate them.
I would check your relative's paper work first, to confirm what he or she has and if all the same. Your description doesn't sound exactly like an LIRA, but the info you received might be confusing.

I gather that all these plans are in Manulife mutual funds. Does that mean they are held in a Manulife account or through some other agent or broker? If they are held by a Manulife account, then I think he'd be better off amalgamating them before transferring them to TDDI or whatever, if possible. Otherwise, he could end up with a lot of transfer fees, which I would think would be waived if kept "within the family". But I don't know if an amalgamation can be done, at either stage. It may depend on what these plans are, legally.