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 forget things there. This is also true for old credit cards and such. Beware; they can be easily compromised, leading to a host of issues.
For me, I am attempting to clean up a Locked-In Retirement Account, which I opened in 1990. Before I had any financial knowledge, I was completely bewildered and taken advantage of. 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.
Clean up in 2011
Fast-forward to 2011, 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 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 it was not the greatest growth, either. I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It could have just as easily been worth less than $2000, but at least now I can 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 control it.
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.