# transferring your LIRA when Moving from one province to another?



## ashin1 (Mar 22, 2014)

Yesterday i was talking to a friend who was telling me about her move from Manitoba to Alberta and talked about the pros and cons of changing the location of your work(province wise), and she goes to tell me that she was able to remove her pension that she received while working in Manitoba and transfer it into her RRSP account. 
Has anyone ever tried anything like this before?
I moved from SK and was working there for 3 years and then moved to AB just last year and tomorrow im going to check out on how to do this. 
Thought I would share the info with you guys for those who are unaware and have moved from different provinces to work.


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## mars (Mar 11, 2014)

I'm not sure of all the in's and out's but I have worked for different companies in different provinces and have had the pensions from the various companies collapsed into my own LIRA account within my trading account. This is actually something that your bank can help with. They will take care of all the necessary paper work to have the transfer completed. If you haven't transferred your bank account to your new location then this could be a little more difficult as the bank would prefer to deal with you as an account holder at their branch even if you are with the same bank but have an account at a different branch. I think I've collapsed 3 different company pensions into my LIRA.


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## ashin1 (Mar 22, 2014)

@mars

thanks for the reply.
my plan of action tomorrow is call the finance and consumer afair authority of SK, and get the details. then call my last employers and get the info.

but hopefully if all goes well and my bank sets it up, time to put that pesnioin money to real work


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

First question is whether this friend is detail orientated enough to be clear on what has happened. 

When I left my first job with a DB pension, my options were:
a) stay with the DB pension.
b) take the excess portion of the pension as income (paying income tax on it) and the rest to a Locked In Retirement Account (LIRA).
c) transfer the excess portion of the pension to my RRSP and the rest to a LIRA.

If this friend is like most of my co-workers, I can easily see where they could call it an "RRSP" when in fact, it is a LIRA. 

Except for not being able to add any more contributions or withdraw from my LIRA, it is the same as my RRSP so it's easy to confuse the two.


The second question is whether a hardship case was made to allow withdraw from the LIRA before the age limit.


Another possibility is that assuming the pension was under provincial rules, moving to another province reduced the age needed to withdraw from it.

Here is an article outlining some of the factors:
http://retirehappy.ca/unlocking-pension-money-getting-money/


AFAIKT - age is really the only one that moving provinces is going to help with.


Finally, what rules was your pension under - provincial or federal?


Personally - the blanket statement of "transfer everything to an RRSP" contradicts everything I've read or experienced with my LIRA so I am thinking there's details that aren't being mentioned or confusion.


Cheers


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

I moved a small LIRA (24K) from Ontario to Alberta when I closed my company sponsored account and moved to over to my preferred institution in Alberta. The plan that I belonged to was governed by the Province of Ontario.

I did a google and checked the Alberta Gov't website. It is very comprehensive and well laid out. My preference was to roll it into my RRSP for simplicity. The Alberta regulations would not let me do this. Depending on the amount, you can transfer it all, or half...but the thresholds to do that are very low.

There is also a provision for conversion based on hardship. One has to apply for this.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Strange ... everyone I know of has to decide to stay in the company plan or move to a LIRA, within a short timeframe after they quit. Once the decision is set - it can't be changed.

So as I understand it - your company pension would have been closed the decision to transfer to a LIRA was registered and the assets transferred. So the company pension is no longer in the picture when the move to Alberta happened (i.e. it was move of the LIRA only).


Unless this was some sort of exceptional arrangement?


Cheers


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

My case was unique. Company based in Toronto, DB in Ontario, but we live in Alberta. Our DB plan was a hybrid plan. We had a non-contributory DB (no employee contributions needed) plus we had an optional contribution plan whereby ees could contribute up to 3 percent (to a max of approx. 3300) and the company matched at 1.5 percent. Monies in this voluntary plan could only be used to enhance the DB plan...reduce the cost of survivor benefit, add some indexing, bridge to 65 to compensate for CPP since our full pension retirement date was 62, etc.


Oddly enough the LIRA resulted from an 'audit' that I did in 2006. Through 2 mergers I discovered that the company had failed to deposit their matching amount for a number of years. It amounted to just shy of about 10K plus some interest. We had been through 2 mergers...this was not intentional. After the back and forth with the company,and then CRA (company had to get some kind of permission from them), the only way that the money could paid back to me was in this separate fund. By 2013 this was pot was just under 24 K in a LIRA. Don't know why exactly, but that is how Towers Perin, my employer, and CRA dictated what was to done. Sorry, long story. 

Once I had the paperwork/statements together the actual audit took 15 minutes. It took another 8 months of discussions to resolve. 

The lesson....never be afraid to 'audit' your company matching amounts or pension entitlement. If you don't....no one else will. And I found more errors in my favour as I was going through the proposed DB pension entitlement and Serp 7 years later!


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Thanks for the details.

I guess I've had the more traditional method, where the choice is made as soon as leaving and at most, involves a combination of creating (or adding to) a LIRA and direct transfers to my self-directed RRSP.


Cheers


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

Eclectic12 said:


> Here is an article outlining some of the factors:
> http://retirehappy.ca/unlocking-pension-money-getting-money/


Nice to have read this in the link you posted, befitting at this time:

"Back in 2008, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced changes to allow Canadians easier access to their Locked-in retirement accounts (LIRA). Prior to 2008, it was very difficult for Canadians to access their own pension money because the rules were designed with the intent of trying to ensure lifetime income. As a result, there were restrictions in place preventing people from spending their pension funds too quickly."


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## heyjude (May 16, 2009)

If you move to another province in retirement, what determines which province's rules to follow? Is it the location of your financial institution or your residence?


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