Should I transfer money from my pension plan into my RRSP?

Warren Baldwin, vice-president of T.E. Financial Consultants, has the answer.

Warren Baldwin 14 April, 2003 | 1:00PM
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Dear Expert:

I have recently left my job. I have approx $50,000 in my pension plan from that job, and now have the option of transferring it into an RRSP instead of leaving it in the pension plan. Which route is best?

Expert Answer:

There is no easy general answer to this. If the plan is a Money Purchase (Defined Contribution) Plan, then yes it may make sense to transfer as long as you can get similar investment vehicles elsewhere and similar costs of management. You should also make sure you do not forfeit any part of the company contributions if a transfer is made.

However, if the plan is a Defined Benefit Plan, it may be portable to another pension. This is the case with plans for government employees or teachers, for example, and you may even qualify to rejoin the plan and continue receiving credited service at some point in the future if you again begin an employment that qualifies.

Otherwise, you should be aware of the "discount" on the value of the pension transfer amount. Discount is the rate used to calculate the present value of the pension based on the payments from the plan at some future date. A few years ago, I reviewed the case of a client in his mid 40's; once his employer calculated the value of his pension payout at age 65 and then discounted that value back to his current age, we were able to calculate that the discount rate used had been an average of 9% over about 20 years. Since clearly it would be almost impossible to achieve anything like this with no risk on an investment portfolio, we left his pension intact with the employer.

Best to get a professional to help you on this and make sure all aspects of the analysis are carefully explained. You may even find that your pension department will be able to provide some answers. Be careful, once the transfer is done, there is no reversing the process.

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Warren Baldwin

Warren Baldwin  

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