A Letter on Deaf Ears

A Letter on Deaf Ears

Hi Everybody;

Well here is another letter sent out to a government that doesn't really care what the people of Ontario want.

Apparently all they want to do is line their pockets. After voting them selves a 35% raise just before Christmas , they are lining their pockets again with another raise. They are the highest paid MPP's in Canada.

Maybe that is why they refuse to unlock our money. They need that money when each senior passes away and they tax their estate at the highest rate so that they will be able to keep their pockets full of money.

Hon Dalton McGuinty; ???????

Dear Dalton ;

As you may have noticed . The Federal Government is now going to allow the unlocking of 50% of Federal Locked-in pensions in Canada.This means that well over 50% of the Citizens of Canada will have a privilege that is being denied to the Citizens of Ontario.

Federal 50% , Alberta 50% , Saskatchewan 100% , Manitoba 50% ,((( Ontario 25% )))I have heard that British Columbia is also considering unlocking 50%.

Your past Finance Minister Greg Sorbara during a interview concerning locked-in pensions in answer to the Question " Do senior citizens really need protection from unscrupulous investors?"

On a CBC Radio interview Stated .

" I don't think that this has any thing to do with protecting senior citizens from investors whether unscrupulous or not. "

Your Now Current Finance Minister Dwight Duncan now States .

" the Ontario government is concerned that full unlocking of locked-in accounts could put retirement income at risk. The rational is simple , these funds are important in ensuring that seniors are provided with a regular income stream throughout retirement despite the uncertainty of an individuals life expectancy , future investment ,returns and inflation."

It appears that your Finance Ministers answers depend on is if there is a election or not.

Before a election Your government isn't concerned if a Senior is capable of looking after their own funds . ((( I would like to remind you this is our own funds )))

Now that the election is over Your government is saying in a nice way that only the Seniors in Ontario are to Stupid to look after their ((( OWN FUNDS ))) Not government money !!!

We were smart enough to save money for retirement. We are also smart enough to use it and invest it wisely.

PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT UNLOCKING LOCKED IN PENSIONS 100% .

Jack M. Mintz Professor Of Business Economics ,Rotman School of Management ,

Malcolm Hamilton,Actuary ,Mercer Human Resource Consulting Toronto ,

Gordon Pape , Renowned Financial Expert ,

One Thousand Eight Hundred Signatures on the online Petition that has requested that the Government of Ontario Unlock LIRF , LIRA , LIF 100%

CD Howe Institute , Canadian Economic And Social Policy Think Tank,

CARP , National Advocacy Organization For The 50 Plus , 250,000 members in Ontario ,

The Common Front For Retirement Security , 2 Million Members across Canada .

The Ontario Coalition of Independent Locked-in Fund Holders ,

Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens Organizations.

My Question Is why does the Liberal Government of Ontario Refuse to unlock Locked-in Pensions 100 %.

Especially when A good Number of Current Liberal MPP'S will enjoy this Privilege at the age of 55 or when they retire.

Bill Costello

Live Poor Die Rich

Hi Everybody;Here is a article that Grant has sent out to a number of papers .

Locked-In Pensions: Live Poor Die RichMarch 17, 2008

Many retirees today living with locked-in pensions are barely getting by and are increasingly becoming poorer with each round of rate hikes of their most basic needs. Some are often faced with no other choice but to give up the home they’ve worked for all their lives in order to obtain additional money just to survive.

The real costs facing seniors, especially in the current economic climate, are escalating uncontrollably due in large part to the rising price of energy to heat their homes, gasoline for their cars, water and sewer charges, endless property tax hikes and the rising costs for food.

If you are one of these people depending on your Ontario regulated LIF or LRIF pension to see you through these tough times, the money in your locked-in pension will outlive 99.9% of you.

That’s right, according to Statistics Canada, less than one half of one percent of our seniors will ever reach 90 years of age, which is the age that you would get the final 50% of the balance of the money in your locked-in pension.

Therefore, 99.9% of you with LIF’s or LRIF’s will certainly die with at least 50% of your pension money left behind to your successor all the while living out your golden years staring into your pension fund without ever getting to actually use the bulk of it.

Even at the average life expectancy of 78 for a male and 82 for a female, the government still only allows a paltry 11 to 12% annual access to your locked-in pension at those ages.

This is why you will certainly live poor and die rich when it comes to your locked-in pension.

The Ontario government, which regulates access to your locked-in pensions, is out of touch with the 6% annual access it grants seniors to their own pension money. They appear oblivious to the plight of these pensioners and provide no practical means to increase the rate of access to those with locked-in pensions to meet the ever-increasing real cost of living.

While other provinces and the Federal government allow from 50% to 100% access to their regulated locked-in pensions, the Ontario government continues to remain far behind with a one-time access of only 25%.

They continue to ignore and refuse to listen to the will of its seniors who are seeking 100% access to their locked-in pensions instead of remaining shackled with this out-dated indifferent legislation.

This is completely unacceptable and cruel to those seniors who would normally be able to afford to keep up with the rising cost of living if greater or full access to their locked-in pensions would be made available to them as was done for 61 Ontario MPP’s back in 1999 when they passed legislation that unlocked their own locked-in pensions.

The Liberal government today, continues to support the double standard that it’s current leader hypocritically and eloquently denounced back in 1999 when legislation was passed to exclusively unlock MPP’s pensions 100% while ignoring all other Ontarians with similar pensions.

Further, the Ontario government is clearly inconsistent with its own economic strategies when on one hand it allows providers of essential services to set their own pricing based on the free market model of supply and demand, and on the other hand, through discriminatory and archaic legislation, prevents it’s senior population from keeping up to these market driven rising costs by fixing a limited amount of access to their private locked-in pensions.

How can this paradox be allowed to continue when those with locked-in pensions aren’t allowed the same freedom of access to their pensions to keep up with the market’s unrestricted freedom to set pricing of goods, services, taxes and other basic necessities.

The current policies and philosophy regarding locked-in pensions were developed back in the day when the day-to-day costs of these basic necessities rarely rose at all.

Those days are long gone, but the outdated legislation governing Ontario’s locked-in pensions are not.

Tight government interference with seniors’ private locked-in pensions simply must be eliminated in order to allow these folks a fighting chance to keep up with the ever increasing real cost of living, especially when they don’t often have any other means to increase their income other than through their LIF or LRIF pensions.

The Ontario government’s insistence on limiting its seniors ability to manage these burgeoning costs with its paternalism over their own pension money is bordering on white collar elder abuse and is outright shameful.

This government is completely out of touch with its senior population and continues to ignore private members bills, lobbying by private citizens, prominent financial experts such as Jack Mintz, Malcolm Hamilton, Gordon Pape etc., petitions with thousands of signatures, CARP and the Ontario Coalition of Independent LIF Holders.

It’s time for the Ontario government to do as Saskatchewan did in 2002 and eliminate locked-in pensions altogether thereby allowing 100% access to Ontario seniors’ private pensions and thus the opportunity to keep up with the spiralling personal cost of living by managing the money in their own LIF and LRIF pensions as they see fit.

Ultimately, if the Ontario government does not abolish these archaic "out of touch" regulations and end the control over its seniors’ LIF’s and LRIF’s, 99.9% of Ontarians with locked-in pensions will surely continue to live poorly and die rich, leaving the majority of their money behind that could have been used to provide them with the quality of life they’ve earned for themselves while alive.

Grant Fleury, Ontario Coalition of Independent LIF HoldersSudbury

Federal Pension LIF 50% Unlocking -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi All;

I am just updating you on what is happening in case you haven't seen this.

It is time to get after the Ontario Liberals again as now the Federal government has allowed 50% unlocking of Federal locked in pensions.

This is a letter I just received from Bill Gleberzon of CARP.

The 2008 Federal Budget has a number of good improvements for LIF-holders. The following paragraph is from our analysis of the budget: "Choices for federally regulated Locked-In Fund (LIF) - holders, such as, for those 55 years or older, conversion of up to $22,450 into to a tax deferred saving vehicle as well as an one time conversion of up to 50% of the principal into a tax deferred savings vehicle with no maximum withdrawal limits – also the option to unlock up to $22,450 for those with financial hardship." This is not only good for federally regulated LIF holders but for our campaign in Ontario as an enhancement that the Ontario Government should adopt -- from unlocking $25% to unlocking 50% as well as increasing the amount that can be unlocked to $22,450.

Key in to the Federal Department of Finance and go to The Federal Budget Index under LIfe Income Funds.

Regards Bill Costello

25% Pension Unlocking Reminder and Information

25% Pension Unlocking Reminder

Hi All ;

I am just reminding everyone who is going to be transferring the 25% out of their locked in fund into a RRIF or RRSP.

If You draw a income from your locked in fund during the year . Make sure that you transfer your yearly allowed income out of your locked in fund and put it aside in a account so that you can use it for income through out the year.

Do this((( BEFORE))) You transfer into a new LIF fund in order to draw your 25%.

If you do not do this you will not be able to draw from the NEW LIF until the next calendar year and would then have to withdraw from your 25% instead.

DO NOT just leave this up to your financial institution as we have found the advisers are not always fully informed of change..

Also Remember once you have transferred into a new LIF (((( You have only 60 days to make your 25% withdrawal . After that you have lost the opportunity. ))))

There have been new rules added to the FSCO web site since the New Year.To check them out go here.

http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/english/pensions/locked-inaccountchanges.asp#how25

Q: Is the maximum annual income payment amount in the first year of a New LIF calculated based on the original amount transferred into the New LIF, or is it calculated using the adjusted amount after a 25% unlocking withdrawal has been made?

For example, a New LIF is purchased with $100,000 deposited into it from a LIRA on the date of purchase. Fifty days later, the owner withdraws 25%, which leaves $75,000 in the New LIF. Is the first year maximum annual income payment amount based on $100,000 or $75,000?

A: The maximum annual income payment for the first year is based on the balance of the New LIF at the start of the New LIF’s fiscal year, regardless of any amount subsequently withdrawn. In this example, the maximum would be based on $100,000.

(((((((Note, however, that if the money deposited into the New LIF came from an Old LIF, LRIF or another New LIF, the maximum annual income payment amount for the New LIF for that fiscal year would be zero.)))))))

WE are still going after 100% unlocking in Ontario as Saskatchewan did for their citizens in 2002.

If you are outraged how the Ontario government restricts the Retire's from (((Their Own Pension Money.))

((( This is Not Government Money.))) Please write to your Premier , Finance Minister , Minister Responsible for Seniors , And Your MPP and tell them you want these pensions unlocked 100%.

You All Take Care Bill Costello

Locked in Pension Survey

Locked in Pension Survey

Hi All;This is a survey I would recommend filling out. It is being done in British Columbia and recomended by CARP.

Every province that unlocks pensions helps us accomplish it in Ontario and Federal.

It does not matter what Province your pension is in or if it is Federal.

Everybody can fill this out if they wish.

Please also send this on to anybody you know that has a locked in pension.

Regards Bill Costello

You're invited to participate in a survey about retirement planning and private pension plans.

Will your pension be there for you?

• Do you have a private pension•

Have you ever needed ‘instant access’ to your locked-in private pension funds? • Would you like to have the option to ‘instant access’? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions then we want to hear from you!! Please find below a link to a survey about retirement planning and private pension plans.

Survey results will be used by Simon Fraser University researchers to generate policy alternatives with respect to the locking-in of private pension benefits.

CARP is happy to help with the research and urges former private pension members to complete the survey as thoroughly as possible. This survey is voluntary and you can withdraw at anytime. Your responses are confidential and will not be distributed to third parties. In clicking on the below link you are consenting to participate in this study:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1DGgy793z6lQC0QFeX40_2fA_3d_3d

We thank-you in advance for your contribution to this important research.

Christmas Letter to Dalton

Hi Folks:

This is a Christmas Letter sent to Dalton.

Maybe You would also like to send one and ask Dalton to think of the Seniors in the New Year instead of acting like Mister Scrooge.

Merry Christmas And a Prosperous New Year Regards Bill Costello.

Hon Dalton McGuinty dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org Premier

Hon Dwight Duncan dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org Minister of Finance

Hon Aileen Carroll carrollaileen@yahoo.ca Minister Responsible for Seniors

Good morning Mr. McGuinty,

Once again it is Christmas time and once again it is time to remind you of the plight of seniors who hold Locked-In pensions.

The Legislative Hansard reveals that on December 15, 1999 you asked the following question of then Finance Minister Ernie Eves.

"My question is for the Minister of Finance. Minister, with reference to Bill 27, we have discovered deep down inside a delightful Christmas gift that you intend to give to a select group of MPPs in this Legislature.

I want to make it perfectly clear in this House today that I and my party will have none of it. Your special provision says that MPPs are going to have special access to their pension funds.

You're going to give a right to MPPs that none of the other 11 million Ontarians are going to be able to enjoy.

Your new bill will allow some of our MPPs to have instant access to their pension plan at age 55 when you're going to give no other Ontarian that said same right.

Minister, how can you possibly justify this double standard?" Bill 27 to which you referred was called An Act To Amend The Pension Benefits Act And The MPPs Pension Act. It received Royal Assent on December 22, 1999.Despite you personally having voted against Bill 27, as did other members of your Liberal party, your words of December 15th 1999, ...

"I and my party will have none of it" ... have proven to be totally false.In fact, just the opposite has turned out to be the REAL truth.

There were members from your own Liberal party who received extraordinary financial gain with respect to their pensions, despite having voted against Bill 27.

Further, the person who received the most financial gain was none other than your former Liberal colleague, Mr. Sean Conway.

Mr. Conway's own words from the Legislative Hansard for December 13, 1999 were ... "Make no mistake about it: Some of us, with names like Conway, Harris, Eves, Sterling, Runciman, are very substantially advantaged by a portion of this bill, and it is wrong that we should be so advantaged. ........... What we have here today, I say to my friends, in one particular respect is another sweetheart deal for a few members of this Legislature named Harris, Eves, Conway, among others. I want to make it plain. No one benefits more from this change than I do. It's a wrong thing for me to support. I would go even further and say it's immoral."

Today, Mr. Conway has unfettered access to over $1 million of pension money that had previously been designated as Locked-In pension money.

Yet he said such exclusive privilege was both wrong and immoral.

Now, let us fast forward to Christmas 2006.As reported in the CTV article of December 21, 2006, you Mr. McGuinty, were initially opposed to the magnanimous pay raise that was being proposed for MPPs.

However upon the final vote being taken, you ended up being a major recipient of this magnanimous pay raise.

Once again, MPPs, including yourself, received extraordinary financial gain just before Christmas.

Once again too, you have profited from gains achieved, in some measure, on the backs of seniors who hold Locked-In pensions.

Where certain special MPPs in 1999 received unfettered access to their pension monies at age 55, monies that had been accrued entirely from within a defined benefit plan called the infamous MPPs gold-plated pension plan, you now have had the audacity to allow seniors unfettered access to only 25% of their pension money, with the full access being delayed until age 90. As you well know, most seniors will not be alive at age 90 and as such will forfeit much of their hard-earned pension monies to the government in the form of estate taxes.

Yet your fellow Liberal colleagues such as Jim Bradley, Sean Conway, Elinor Caplan and Tony Ruprecht, and the list goes on, who also may not be alive at age 90, get 100% unfettered pension access at age 55 and thus are able to enjoy their pension monies while still living.

It is these forfeited pension monies that are paying a portion of your magnanimous pay raise.Also, the CTV article below makes reference to the fact the MPPs no longer have a pension plan.

Such information from MPPs is flat-out deception of the public through semantics. Each MPP does have a pension plan. It is called an RRSP plan to which they now have unfettered access.

What each MPP no longer has though, is membership in the former MPPs gold-plated defined benefit pension plan.

Under relentless pressure from the public because of the inordinate pension benefits that politicians had bestowed upon themselves over the years, this plan was dissolved in 1995.

The 10 per-cent of earnings that is now being contributed to each MPP's RRSP plan is in part coming from seniors who own Locked-In pensions.

These are the same people Mr. McGuinty, to whom you refuse to extend unfettered pension access privileges.

Mr. McGuinty, as you attend the Christmas recital at the school where your wife teaches, look around the room and see the number of grandparents that are there proudly supporting their grandchildren's efforts.

Some of these grandparents own Locked-In pensions and as such are unable to enjoy the quality of life during their golden years that they deserve.

Why? The answer is quite simple. You are denying them unfettered access to their own hard-earned pension monies while they are living. Yet at the same time you demand that they pay for your magnanimous pay raises and your rich pension buyouts of 1999.

Your recent announcement of a national holiday in February is nothing but another example of a cruel shell game perpetrated in part against seniors.

Everything costs, including your new holiday announcement and for sure it will be seniors with Locked-In pensions who will once again be asked to dig a little deeper.

Why is a lock on one's financial assets, especially seniors, only acceptable for ordinary Ontarians but not acceptable for you Mr. McGuinty?

As we await your Christmas message and hope upon hope that you don't find another way to award yourself another delightful Christmas gift, will you answer your own question as it relates to Locked-In pensions ... that is the question you asked of Mr. Eves back in 1999 that is still waiting for an honest answer today?"

How can you possibly justify this double standard?

I, along with hundreds of thousands of other seniors, await your answer.

Kenneth Elliott

Letter to Government

Hi All ;

This is a letter I just recently sent to Government. We are still working towards unlocking LIF's 100% in Ontario Regards Bill C

Dear Dalton and Members of Provincial Parliament ;

Congratulations on achieving a second majority victory.

I am writing you again to request that you take a serious look at the locked-in pension issue.

There is no logical reason that these pensions should be kept locked in.

The statement your past Finance Minister gave on the Unlocking issue was ,

Quote " I don't think that this has any thing to do with protecting senior citizens from investors whether unscrupulous or not. It's about simply honoring the agreement the trust relationship between the employer and the employee at the time those funds were put in. "

I have talked with a few employers about the last statement about " honoring the agreement " .Their response to that was , the agreement to provide , was a negotiation between the employer and the employed to provide a Pension for retirement. They did not feel that this pension should be locked in at retirement.

Many People were caught in this locked in Pension Scam .

I was one of them!

I also have received hundreds of letters ,as I am sure You have ,that there are many people that were misinformed about these locked in pensions.

This is what happened to me.

When I was asked to join this pension plan in the 70's I was told that the employer would contribute 4% of my wage to a pension fund if I contributed 4% ( It was voluntary , some people did not join) I was told I could contribute more if I wished as it would help to give me more money at retirement. I moved my contribution up to 10% thinking that this was a great way to save for retirement (( I was sure wrong on that thought ! ))

I faithfully put money into the plan believing how good things would be when I reached Retirement .

In the early 80's a financial planer from Standard Life ( The institution that looked after our fund ) told us about RRSP's and how they weren't locked in and how we would have complete control of them at retirement.

I then spoke up and said that we had best get out of our locked in fund then and invest in RRSP's (( everybody in our group agreed on doing this ))

The Planner then said " You don't have to make any change , If you quit before your normal retirement date . You will be able to transfer your funds into a RRSP

"The one important thing he didn't tell us was that it would be a Locked-in RRSP.

None of us therefore invested in a Unlocked RRSP.

Years later in 1999 a fellow worker decided to retire at 60. He left his job and applied for his retirement funds .He then got the shocking news that he would be only able to basically withdraw $ 8000.00 for every $100000.00 that he had in his pension fund. (( His plan was still Locked-in )) Needless to say he had to go back to work.

When we seen what happened we immediately went to the employer and told him we wanted out of the locked in plan. The Employer agreed saying that he also did not realize that the plan did not become unlocked at retirement.

We then started up a RRSP plan and the employer still put in their share of the money and we put in ours. The only thing that changes was the plan was not Locked in.

Changing the plan did not help many of us as some were already nearer retirement and I became disabled and was no longer able to do my Job.

Thank God I had invested in a RRSP for my wife and we were able to withdraw her funds as needed for the last 8 years or I would have lost everything that I had worked so hard for .

There are many people that I receive letters from that saved believing that they would be able to use these funds in their retirement as they wished.

They were misinformed by the financial advisers and led to believe that they would have full access to their funds. (( It Should be noted !! This is their Own Money and they took the Risks in investment ))

Will You Please tell me why your government will not unlock these funds for the seniors of Ontario!!

As I am sure You know that Saskatchewan has unlocked these funds 100% in 2002 for their Retired Seniors. Manitoba has also unlocked 50% and is being asked to unlock the remaining 50%. Alberta unlocked 50% and Now British Columbia is going to follow Alberta by unlocking 50% in it's Province.

Organizations such as Canada's Association For The 50 Plus , The Common Front For Retirement Security with 2 Million members across Canada , The Ontario Coalition of Senior Organizations ,The Ontario Coalition of Independent Lif Holders. All back unlocking LIF's 100% at 55 years of age in Ontario.

Prominent People such as Professor Jack Mintz , Actuary Malcolm Hamilton , Financial Writer Gordon Pape .All agree that Ontario should unlock LIF's 100% as Saskatchewan did for their Senior retiree's.

Please tell me what logical reason why the Government of Ontario feels that they should only unlock 25% instead of the full 100% of the Citizens own Money.

Bill Costello ,