Can you unlock your pension plan?

LIRA (Locked-In Retirement Account): This plan falls under provincial jurisdiction. If your former employer was governed by the law of the province you worked in instead of federal law for pension plans, then you would have the option to put your retirement pension plan value in a LIRA upon leaving your employer.

LRSP (Locked-In Retirement Savings Plan): Same as a LIRA but for employer whose pension plan was under federal law.

RLSP (Registered Locked-In Savings Plan): This plan is under Federal jurisdiction and is used to transfer a one-time 50% unlocking from a LRSP account.

LIF (Life Income Fund): Can be federal or provincial but this plan exist since that most other types of plan have a rule where the funds must be transferred into a LIF before you turn a certain age (normally 71) at which point you are legally obligated to take out a minimum amount every year.

Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF): Similar to a LIF but for regular RRSP. Meaning the funds in your RRSP must be transferred to a RRIF before the end of the year that your turn 71.

Prescribed Retirement Income Fund (PRIF): Only available for LIRAs that were under Manitoba or Sakatchewan rules. Similar to a LIF but with the major distinction that there is no cap on the amount of funds you can take out of them. You can therefore withdraw all of the funds in the same year if you wish to do so.

Locked-in Retirement Income Fund (LRIF): Same as a LIF but exclusive to the province of Newfoundland & Labrador.

Registered Pension Plan (RPP): This is a pension plan while it is still with your employer. Once you leave the employer the RPP can remain with them until you are allowed to start receiving a retirement benefit or it can be converted to a LIRA or LRSP depending on whether your employer's is governed by provincial or federal law.

We operate as canyouunlock.com.Our administrative office is located at King Street West, Suite 2000, Toronto (ON), M5V 3S5.

We are a lead generation referral site. In other words, we are the middleman between you and the financial institution able to assist in you in accessing your funds. It's our job to find and provide the financial institutions with a steady stream of suitable clients that have been pre-screened to see if they qualify for their services.

It is important to understand that we do not share or match you with a service provider without getting your permission to do so. We will only request your permission to send your application once you are informed if you qualify for unlocking your plan or not.

Think of us as a mortgage broker who matches you to the best organization that can provide the service you are looking for.

We do not charge you anything. If you do qualify and decide to use one of our service providers to help you get your funds, we will get a commission which is paid by the service provider — not you.

The service provider will have their own fees and cost and rules which they will communicate with you and you will be informed of before agreeing to proceed.

We do not share the list of service providers for several reasons. The primary being that if we did, clients would simply go to them directly and we would not get our commission. Rest assured that once you are matched with a service provider that you will have full disclosure and they will want to communicate with you and explain their process, any other documentation they may need, and their applicable fees. You will also be able to ask them any questions you may have about the process or their company and you can always decide to not proceed if you feel that their service is not for you.

You will receive a confirmation email shortly after submitting your application that we have received your information.

One of our advisors will review your information and send you an email with results of your assessment.

Accessing funds in a locked-in pension plan is complicated and a major financial decision. For this reason, we will want to discuss with you how the process works, the costs and the pros and cons of the options available to you. If you decide to proceed, we will need to sign a legal contract and obtain additional information from you. We will provide you with an official application form to initiate the process.

Your assigned advisor will guide you through the process step-by-step from A to Z and be there to assist you and answer any questions you may have.

Accessing your pension funds is a serious financial decision. We want to make sure that this service is a right fit for you, that you understand the pros and cons and that you give them due consideration before deciding to go ahead or not.

We also have various options to provide this service and those options vary depending on your circumstances. Before we can give you an application, we must know which option is best for your situation as the information requested may vary.

We are also obligated under the “know your client” (KYC) rules to communicate with you before providing this service to you. Under KYC, we have to do our due diligence and validate a number of things such as that you are the person who you claim to be, that the funds rightfully belong to you and that they were acquired from a valid financial activity.

Here are the plans that can qualify to be unlocked: