Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985

21 (1) For the purposes of paragraphs 26(1)(c) and (2)(c) and subparagraphs 26(3)(a)(iii) and (b)(iii) of the Act, an immediate life annuity or a deferred life annuity that is purchased with a pension benefit credit or with the funds of a locked-in registered retirement savings plan, a restricted locked-in savings plan, a life income fund or a restricted life income fund shall provide that

• (a) except as provided in subsection 25(4) of the Act, no benefit provided under the annuity shall be assigned, charged, anticipated or given as security and any transaction purporting to assign, charge, anticipate or give the benefit as security is void;

• (b) except in the case of the unexpired period of a guaranteed annuity where the annuitant is deceased, no benefit provided under the annuity shall be surrendered or commuted during the lifetime of the annuitant or the spouse or common-law partner of the annuitant and any transaction purporting to surrender or commute such a benefit is void; and

• (c) where the annuitant has a spouse or common-law partner at the time that annuity benefits commence to be paid, the annuity benefit shall be paid in the form of a joint and survivor pension benefit, subject to the provisions of section 22 of the Act.

(2) A deferred life annuity referred to in subsection (1) that is purchased with a pension benefit credit or with the funds of a locked-in registered retirement savings plan, a restricted locked-in savings plan, a life income fund or a restricted life income fund shall provide that

• (a) if the annuitant dies prior to the time that the annuity payments commence, the survivor is entitled, on the death of the annuitant, to an amount equal to the commuted value of the deferred life annuity; and

• (b) any amount to which the survivor is entitled shall be

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

  • (ii) transferred to a plan, including any pension plan referred to in subsection 26(5) of the Act, if the plan permits such a transfer and administers the benefit attributed to the transferred funds as if the benefit were that of a plan member with two years of membership in the plan,

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

  • (iv) transferred to a life income fund or to a restricted life income fund.

(3) [Repealed, SOR/95-551, s. 5]

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2), the commuted value of the deferred life annuity shall be determined in accordance with the Recommendations for the Computation of Transfer Values from Registered Pension Plans effective September 1, 1993 issued by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, as amended from time to time.