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Canajun Finances Home » Clean Up Old Accounts (redux)

Clean Up Old Accounts (redux)

I have covered this topic before, if you have old savings vehicles hanging around, you need to consolidate or clean them up. There is no point in leaving them around because you might end up forgetting things are there. This is also true for old credit cards and such too. They can be easily hijacked, and you will have a world of headaches from them.

1937 Series $20 – front / Billet de 20 $ de la série 1937 – recto
1937 Series $20 – front ; Now that is some VERY old accounts! (compliments the Bank of Canada Archive)

For me, I am attempting to clean up a Locked-In Retirement Account, which I opened in 1990. It was long before I knew anything about anything financially, and I was bamboozled. I had money in a DPSP from Nortel, and a Life Insurance guy who worked with SUN Life convinced me I should put that in an LIRA. That was false, I could have transferred the stock into an RRSP and been done with it. I ended up putting about $2000 in there, in some Sun Life Mutual Fund.

Fast forward to last year, and I attempted to use those funds to buy into my Public Service Pension. However, that failed. Sometimes even when you think you have filled in the forms correctly, you can end up with a resolution not to your liking.

I decided that account was going to move to somewhere where I felt I had control. As I was in the bank for yet another RESP withdrawal visit I decided to try yet again to extricate these funds from Sun Life. I think I may have finally succeeded. The funds have been transferred out of SUN Life. I received confirmation of that and hopefully they are now with TD. I must go visit my TD branch for final confirmation.

How much did that investment grow? I now have $3000, so it grew almost 50%, except that was over a 22-year period, so not the greatest of growth, either. I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It could have just as easily been worth less than $2000, but at least now I will be able to invest the money in Index Funds that I understand and like.

If you think you have old savings vehicles with old employers or previous banks, get a handle on them. It’s your money, so you should be controlling them.

Feel Free to Comment

  1. I found you via life insurance Canada. Nice tip. I have a $600 RRSP from a unionized high school job – it used to be a pension. I can’t add more to it, and because it’s so small I can only invest it in GIC’s I really dislike it. To the point I may withdraw it this coming year, as I’ll be off work this year to stay home with our young children and the tax implications won’t be a factor.

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