Overview

A Life Income Fund (LIF) is a retirement income account that provides regular payments during your retirement. LIFs are often converted from Locked-in Retirement Accounts (LIRAs), allowing you to access your retirement savings. You can withdraw a minimum and maximum amount annually, which counts as taxable income. 

Please keep in mind that jurisdictions may have differing rules to be aware of, such as withdrawal amounts and the age of retirement.

Deposits and withdrawals

• Deposits: Unlike other investment accounts, you can't deposit funds directly into a LIF. Instead, fund a LIF by transferring an existing LIF to Wealthsimple or rolling over an existing Wealthsimple LIRA.
• Withdrawals: There's a minimum and maximum withdrawal amount annually for funded LIFs (some exceptions apply in Quebec). Wealthsimple helps you stay within these limits, which are added to your taxable income for the following year. You don't need to withdraw in the first year if the LIF is funded from a LIRA rollover. Learn more about withdrawing from a LIF.

Types of LIFs on Wealthsimple

You can open managed and self-directed investing LIFs on Wealthsimple:

• You can open as many individual managed LIFs as you like. 
• You can only open one self-directed LIF under one jurisdiction.

How to open a LIF

Once you’re ready to open an LIF, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Wealthsimple mobile app
2. Under Accounts, scroll down and select + Add an account
3. Select Open a new account
4. Choose the LIF account type
5. Select your Jurisdiction
6. Follow the prompts to finish setting up your LIF

Roll over a LIRA into a LIF

You can roll over a LIRA account into a LIF account once you reach retirement age, which varies by jurisdiction. To roll over a LIRA with Wealthsimple into a LIF, contact our support team.

Transferring a LIF to Wealthsimple

You’ll need to withdraw the minimum withdrawal amount before moving your account to Wealthsimple. You can either withdraw the funds:

• before you initiate your transfer
• after you submit your transfer request

In both cases, you’ll need to tell your institution that you want to transfer your account and they’ll help you with the withdrawal.

Frequently asked questions