How to Access Funds from Your Locked-In Account

When Would Your Funds be in a Locked-In Account?

As a company employee, you may have had a matched Defined Contribution Plan where both the employee and employer made contributions. Upon leaving, you decided to transfer the assets to a Locked-in Account at your financial institution.

How to Access those Funds:

  • At age 71, if you convert your LIRA to a LIF, you will start to draw a regular income stream, subject to the maximum amount
  • If you need earlier access to an Ontario LIRA and are at least age 55, within the first 60-days of opening a new Ontario LIF, you can unlock assets by transferring 50% to your RRSP.

Other Provisions:

  • Shortened life expectancy
  • Financial hardship
  • No longer a Canadian resident
  • Small pension provision

(All determined by the jurisdiction of the original pension legislation of your employer)