Investment Executive | Ontario eases withdrawals from locked-in retirement funds
Financial hardship unlocking process simplified.
Ontario is making it easier for people to access locked-in retirement funds. The province is shifting responsibility for providing access in cases of financial hardship from regulators to financial firms directly.
The Ontario Ministry of Finance said Monday that it is restructuring its financial hardship unlocking program in a number of ways.
Beginning January 1, 2014, individuals will be able to apply directly to their financial institution for financial hardship withdrawals from locked-in funds — which are amounts transferred from a registered pension plan into a locked-in account (such as locked-in retirement accounts, life income funds and locked-in retirement income funds) — rather than to the Superintendent of Financial Services, Finance says.