What is a Manitoba LIRA?
A Locked-in Retirement Account (LIRA) is a type of registered pension plan.
If you worked for a company that had a pension plan and subsequently left that company for any number of reasons, you were likely to transfer your pension into a LIRA.
How do I access the funds in my LIRA?
If you want to access money from your LIRA, your only option before age 55 is to convert your LIRA into a Life Income Fund (LIF).
The LIF, however, does have withdrawal restrictions in place. There is a minimum withdrawal that must occur every year. There is also a maximum withdrawal that cannot be exceeded.
The minimum and maximum withdrawals are based on your age. If you’re interested to know how much you would be able to withdraw, click here.
After age 55
At the age of 55, you do have an additional option. At that point, you can transfer 50% of your LIF into a prescribed RRIF or a PRIF.
With a PRIF, there’s also a minimum amount that you’re forced to withdraw every year, but there is no maximum withdrawal.
In theory, you could take out 50% of your locked-in funds at 55.
The other 50% would remain in a LIF.
New Changes at 65
Recent pension legislation has been updated in Manitoba to provide further withdrawal options at 65. At that point, you can convert the remainder of your LIF into a RRIF.
A RRIF will also have a minimum withdrawal, but no maximum, providing access to all your locked-in funds.
