Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985

20.1 (1) The contract or arrangement establishing a life income fund shall

• (a) set out the method of determining the value of the life income fund, including the valuation method used to establish its value on the death of the holder of the life income fund or on the transfer of assets from the life income fund;

• (b) provide that the holder of the life income fund shall, at the beginning of each calendar year or at any other time agreed on by the financial institution with whom the contract or arrangement was entered into, decide the amount to be paid out of the life income fund in that year;

• (c) provide that in the event that the holder of the life income fund does not decide the amount to be paid out of the life income fund in a calendar year, the minimum amount determined in accordance with the Income Tax Act shall be paid out of the life income fund in that year;

• (d) provide that the amount of income paid out of the life income fund during a calendar year shall not exceed the amount determined by the formula

  C/F

  where

  C

  is the balance in the life income fund

  • (i) at the beginning of the calendar year, or

  • (ii) if the amount determined in subparagraph (i) is zero, at the date when the initial amount was transferred into the life income fund, and

  F

  is the value, as at the beginning of the calendar year, of a pension benefit of which the annual payment is $1, payable on January 1 of each year between the beginning of that calendar year and December 31 of the year in which the holder reaches 90 years of age, established using an interest rate that

  • (i) for the first 15 years after January 1 of the year in which the life income fund is valued, is less than or equal to the yield obtained on long term bonds issued by the Government of Canada for the second month before the beginning of the calendar year, as compiled by Statistics Canada and published in the Bank of Canada Review under the identification No. B14013 in the CANSIM System, and

  • (ii) for any subsequent year, is not more than 6%;

• (e) provide that, for the calendar year in which the contract or arrangement was entered into, the amount determined under paragraph (d) shall be multiplied by the number of months remaining in that year divided by 12, with any part of an incomplete month counting as one month;

• (f) provide that if, at the time the life income fund was established, part of the life income fund was composed of funds that had been held in another life income fund of the holder earlier in the calendar year in which the fund was established, the amount determined under paragraph (d) is deemed to be zero in respect of that part of the life income fund for that calendar year;

• (g) provide that, subject to paragraph (i), the funds in the life income fund may only be

  • (i) transferred to another life income fund,

  • (ii) transferred to a locked-in registered retirement savings plan, or

  • (iii) used to purchase an immediate life annuity or a deferred life annuity;

• (h) provide that the holder of the life income fund shall use any funds remaining in the life income fund on December 31 in the year in which the holder attains eighty years of age to purchase an immediate life annuity;

• (i) provide that, on the death of the holder of the life income fund, the funds in the life income fund shall be paid to the survivor of the holder by

  • (i) transferring the funds to another life income fund,

  • (ii) using the funds to purchase an immediate life annuity or a deferred life annuity, or

  • (iii) transferring the funds to a locked-in registered retirement savings plan;

• (j) provide that, subject to subsection 25(4) of the Act, the funds in the life income fund shall not be assigned, charged, anticipated or given as security and that any transaction purporting to assign, charge, anticipate or give the funds as security is void; and

• (k) state whether or not any pension benefit credit transferred pursuant to section 26 of the Act was varied according to the sex of the plan member.

(2) Where a pension benefit credit transferred to a life income fund was not varied according to the sex of the plan member, an immediate life annuity or a deferred life annuity purchased with the funds accumulated in the life income fund shall not differentiate as to sex.

(3) The contract or arrangement establishing a life income fund may provide that, where a physician certifies that, owing to mental or physical disability, the life expectancy of the holder of the life income fund is likely to be shortened considerably, the funds in the life income fund may be paid to the holder in a lump sum.