One-screen summary
Six plan types cover almost every retail savings situation in Canada. RRSP defers tax, TFSA shelters growth, RRIF pays it back out, LIRA holds locked-in pension money, RESP funds education with federal grants, RDSP funds disability with federal grants and bonds. Industrial Alliance offers all six.
Canada’s registered-plan grid is small and stable. Six plan types do most of the work, and the federal rules governing each are set by statute rather than by any individual carrier. Industrial Alliance offers all six, administers them through the iA trust company, funds them with mutual funds and segregated funds from iA Investment Management or third-party managers, and reports activity inside My Client Space and on the year-end tax slips that flow to the federal tax authority.
This page walks through each plan in the same order an advisor typically does during a household discovery meeting: what the plan is for, how contributions work, how withdrawals are taxed, and where Industrial Alliance fits. The point is to give a reader who has heard the acronyms enough context to ask sharp questions in a meeting with a licensed advisor. The legislative source of truth on contribution rules sits with the Canada Revenue Agency’s registered savings and pension plans page, which Industrial Alliance mirrors in its customer disclosures and updates each spring.
RRSP — the deferred-tax workhorse
The Registered Retirement Savings Plan is the oldest of the six and still the largest by aggregate Canadian assets. Contributions reduce taxable income in the year they are made, growth inside the plan is sheltered from annual taxation, and withdrawals are taxed as income whenever they happen. The plan is designed for a customer whose marginal tax rate during accumulation years is expected to be higher than during withdrawal years — in practice, most working Canadians.
At Industrial Alliance, an RRSP can be funded with mutual funds, segregated funds or model portfolios. Spousal RRSP versions allow the higher-earning partner to contribute to the lower-earning partner’s plan, which can produce income-splitting benefits in retirement. The advisor’s licensing determines what wrapper the customer can hold inside the plan.
TFSA — the after-tax shelter
The Tax-Free Savings Account is funded with after-tax dollars. There is no deduction at contribution, but growth and withdrawals are tax-free, and any withdrawn amount is added back to contribution room in the following calendar year. Industrial Alliance offers TFSAs as a wrapper around the same fund shelf used for RRSPs, with a separate trust agreement governing the plan.
The TFSA suits two customer profiles particularly well: younger savers whose marginal tax rate is currently low (where the RRSP deduction is less valuable), and retirees who want a flexible source of tax-free withdrawals on top of their RRIF income.
RRIF — the income-paying conversion
The Registered Retirement Income Fund is what an RRSP becomes once the customer starts drawing income. By federal law, the conversion must happen no later than December 31 of the year the customer turns seventy-one. A minimum percentage is paid out each year, scaled by age, and the customer can elect to take more. Withdrawals are taxable as income.
Industrial Alliance handles the RRSP-to-RRIF conversion as an administrative step inside My Client Space. The investment line-up underneath the RRIF is identical to what the customer held in the RRSP, so the conversion does not force a portfolio rebuild.
LIRA — the locked-in pension wrapper
A Locked-In Retirement Account holds money that originated inside a registered pension plan and was transferred out (typically when the customer left the employer that sponsored the pension). Locking-in rules differ slightly between federal pension legislation and the various provincial pension acts, but in every case the LIRA is more constrained than an RRSP — cash withdrawals before retirement age are limited and require formal hardship or small-balance unlocking processes.
Industrial Alliance opens LIRAs to receive pension transfers, holds them through accumulation, and converts them into a Life Income Fund (LIF) when the customer starts drawing retirement income. The wrapper governs withdrawal mechanics; the underlying investments are the same fund shelf used elsewhere.
RESP — the education-funding plan
The Registered Education Savings Plan exists to fund a beneficiary’s post-secondary education. Contributions are not tax-deductible, but the federal government pays in the Canada Education Savings Grant on top of contributions up to legislated annual and lifetime limits. Lower-income households also receive the Canada Learning Bond. Growth is tax-sheltered, and educational withdrawals are taxed in the student’s hands — usually at a low rate.
Industrial Alliance administers individual and family-plan RESPs and shows the grant and bond receipts inside My Client Space. The grant rules are set federally and depend on family net income, so the carrier reports the amounts received but does not determine eligibility.
RDSP — the disability savings plan
The Registered Disability Savings Plan helps fund the long-term financial security of a person eligible for the Disability Tax Credit. Contributions are non-deductible. The federal government pays in the Canada Disability Savings Grant on contributions and the Canada Disability Savings Bond independently of contributions, both subject to family-income tests and lifetime limits. Growth is sheltered. Withdrawals are taxed only on the grant, bond and growth components — not on the contributions.
Industrial Alliance opens RDSPs and integrates the grant and bond receipts into the household’s reporting alongside the other plans. The plan is administratively heavier than other registered plans because of the tax-credit eligibility documentation, which is why advisors typically allocate dedicated time to the onboarding meeting.
Plan grid: what each does, the rule, the use case
| Plan type | Contribution rule (summary) | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|
| RRSP | 18% of prior-year earned income to federal cap, less pension adjustment, plus carry-forward | Working Canadians deferring tax from high-earning to lower-earning years |
| TFSA | Federally legislated annual amount, accumulated since 2009 if eligible | Tax-free shelter for any savings goal, including retirement-flexibility |
| RRIF | No new contributions; minimum withdrawal scales by age | Mandatory conversion of RRSP no later than year customer turns 71 |
| LIRA / LIF | No new contributions; locking-in rules per pension legislation | Holds pension money transferred out of an employer plan |
| RESP | Lifetime limit per beneficiary; federal grant on annual contributions | Education funding for a child or other named beneficiary |
| RDSP | Lifetime limit per beneficiary; federal grants and bonds tied to DTC | Long-term security for a person eligible for the Disability Tax Credit |
Two cautions on reading the table. The numerical limits in column two are deliberately written as “federally legislated” rather than as specific dollar figures because the legislation refreshes annually. Industrial Alliance updates its disclosure each year, and the federal tax authority publishes the authoritative figure on the customer’s annual notice of assessment. And the use cases in column three are descriptive rather than prescriptive — many households hold several plans concurrently, and the right combination depends on the income, family structure and time horizon of the actual customer.
Where Industrial Alliance fits inside the registered-plan picture
Industrial Alliance is the plan administrator and the manufacturer of the underlying funds. It does not set the federal rules. It does not adjudicate eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit, the Canada Education Savings Grant or the federal contribution-room calculation. Those decisions sit with the federal tax authority. What Industrial Alliance does is open the wrapper, hold the trust assets in nominee name, accept and credit grant payments, file the year-end tax slips, and present the entire picture inside My Client Space so the customer can see contributions, growth, grants and withdrawals on a single dashboard.
How a customer typically opens a registered plan with Industrial Alliance
The conversation starts with an advisor who collects basic identification, prior-year tax-slip information, existing-plan statements and a spouse-or-beneficiary designation. The advisor then matches the customer to the right wrapper or wrappers, opens the plan inside the relevant Industrial Alliance subsidiary, and arranges the transfer of any external balances. The household typically sees the plan show up inside My Client Space within ten to fifteen business days, depending on whether existing balances are coming from another carrier and how quickly the originating institution releases the transfer paperwork.