View on Map »

Hide Map

Locked-In Retirement Account

The Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA) 1 and Locked-In Retirement Savings Plan (LRSP) 1 enable you, as an employee to maintain the tax-deferred status of pension plan proceeds received when you leave a company. LIRA’s lock in your money, but not your investment options. These plans are governed by federal or provincial pension legislation.

How they Work

Administrative information:
  • The LIRA can receive pension proceeds if the planholder earned the pension while working in a province other than B.C., Nova Scotia, or P.E.I.
  • P.E.I. has not yet established its own pension legislation, therefore any locked-in plans from P.E.I. must be handled individually
  • All money in locked-in plans must come from your Registered Pension Plan (RPP) or from another locked-in plan. You can’t make additional contributions, but you can decide how your money is invested.

Special information:

The LIRA or LRSP must be collapsed in the year in which you have your 71st birthday. You can then:

  • Purchase an annuity, or
  • Transfer the assets to a LIF or LRIF, depending on the pension legislation governing the LIRA or LRSP

HOW WE HELP

After years of living the “rat race”, you are looking forward…

You are more experienced now, your bank account is larger,…

During the last market downturn a few years ago, retirees who…