As an employee, you may or may not be a member of your company’s pension plan. But for those who are contributing to the company pension, you will undoubtedly be faced with a decision when you leave the company or retire.

Your options regarding your pension can vary, depending on the terms of your pension plan, but typically include the option to take the company pension payments at retirement or take the value of the plan assets, put them into your own registered account and draw down this account during retirement.

If you choose the latter, you should know that, depending on your age, your plan assets may not be immediately available to you to draw down at your leisure.

The assets will be put into what’s commonly referred to as a locked-in retirement plan. There are three different kinds of locked-in plans and the one you should select depends on your age, your province of residence and your objectives.