Secure Income and Pension Savings or investments in Pension Drawdown, or both

You can choose another suitable pension provider instead of the planned transfer to Parmenion. However, this may be more complex because your Retirement Account contains different types of benefit:

• Pension Savings and Pension Drawdown hold your pension investments.
• Secure Income is the income Canada Life pays gross of income tax into your pension account.

The planned transfer to Parmenion is designed to preserve a similar arrangement: your Pension Savings, Pension Drawdown, or both, will move to the Parmenion SIPP, and Canada Life will continue paying your Secure Income gross into that pension account.

It is unlikely that another provider will be able to accept your Secure Income in its current form. And under current pension rules, your Pension Drawdown and Secure Income cannot be separated. This means your Secure Income may need to be converted into a Canada Life Lifetime Annuity, which changes how it is paid and taxed.

What this means in practice depends on whether there are investments in your Pension Drawdown account. The two sections below explain each situation. Your letter and Account Summary show which applies to you.

You or your financial adviser will need to contact your chosen provider and ask it to arrange the transfer. Your chosen provider will then contact us, so you do not need to arrange the transfer with us directly. Please contact your chosen provider, or ask your adviser to do so, early enough for us to receive a valid transfer instruction before 30 October 2026. The provider will need to confirm which parts of your pension it can accept and complete its transfer requirements.

We strongly recommend speaking with a financial adviser before choosing another provider.

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You can transfer your Pension Drawdown to another provider, but your Pension Drawdown and Secure Income cannot be separated.

If your chosen provider cannot accept your Secure Income in its current form, your Secure Income will need to be converted into a Canada Life Lifetime Annuity before your Pension Drawdown can transfer. If this happens:

• Canada Life will continue making the income payments 
• The income will be paid directly to you rather than into a pension account 
• Income tax will be deducted where applicable 
• You will no longer be able to leave or invest the income within a pension account in the same way 

This conversion changes how you receive your existing Secure Income. It does not mean that you are using your Pension Drawdown investments, or any Pension Savings you also hold, to buy a new annuity.

If you also hold Pension Savings, they can be treated separately. Depending on your age and circumstances, you may be able to:

• transfer them to the same provider as your Pension Drawdown 
• transfer them to a different provider 
• take some or all of them as cash 
• use some or all of them to buy an annuity 
• use a combination of these 

Choosing different options for different parts of your Retirement Account could leave you with more than one pension arrangement.

Although there are currently no investments in your Pension Drawdown account, Canada Life pays your Secure Income into it.

You can transfer some or all of your Pension Savings to another provider. If you do this, we’ll send you further information explaining the options available for your Pension Drawdown account and Secure Income. These will include having your Secure Income converted into a Canada Life Lifetime Annuity.

If your Secure Income is converted into an annuity, Canada Life will pay the income directly to you rather than into a pension account, with income tax deducted where applicable. You will no longer be able to leave or invest the income within a pension account in the same way.

Conversion changes how you receive your Secure Income. It does not mean that you are using your Pension Savings to buy a new annuity.

Your chosen provider will need to confirm that it can accept your Pension Savings and complete its transfer requirements.

Depending on your age and circumstances, you may be able to take some or all of your Pension Savings as cash. You may also be able to use some or all of your pension to buy an income for life, known as an annuity. These choices can affect:

• How your Secure Income is paid 
• The tax you pay 
• The income you have later on 
• Any state benefits you receive 
• How long your pension savings may last 
• Your investments 
• The number of pension arrangements or policies you hold 
• What may be payable to your dependants or beneficiaries 
• Your wider retirement plans 

Not every option will be available to or suitable for everyone. Some decisions may be difficult or impossible to reverse. We strongly recommend speaking with a financial adviser before making a decision. A financial adviser can consider all parts of your Retirement Account together and help you understand what each option could mean for you.

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If you decide after the transfer that the Parmenion SIPP is not right for you, you can transfer it to another provider at any time without penalty. The receiving provider will need to meet Parmenion’s transfer requirements.

Your Secure Income may need to be converted into a Canada Life Lifetime Annuity if the new provider cannot accept it in its current form, which would change how it is paid and taxed. We strongly recommend speaking with a financial adviser first. You cannot return to The Retirement Account because it is closing.

Secure Income is income that Canada Life pays into your pension account. A Pension Drawdown withdrawal is a separate payment made from your pension account to you.

After the planned transfer, Canada Life will continue making your Secure Income payments gross of income tax into your Parmenion SIPP. The income can remain within the SIPP until it is invested or withdrawn.

If you currently receive regular Pension Drawdown withdrawals, they will continue after the transfer if you become a Parmenion customer. Parmenion will confirm your future payment arrangements once your new SIPP has been set up.

Parmenion works with financial advisers rather than directly with clients. The planned transfer can still go ahead if you do not currently have a financial adviser. But once your pension is with Parmenion, you will need an adviser to manage your account and make changes, including:

• Setting up a new Direct Debit 
• Changing your investments 
• Setting up or changing regular pension withdrawals 
• Setting up or changing other instructions, such as regular crystallisations 

Because you hold Secure Income, financial advice is particularly important if you are considering another option. Your decision may change how your Secure Income is treated, paid and taxed, and could leave you with more than one pension arrangement. If you do not currently have a financial adviser, you can use our Find a financial adviser page.

Your investments will transfer directly to the Parmenion SIPP without having to be sold. But because other investment providers are involved in moving the funds, individual investments may transfer at different times. We aim to complete the process within 10 working days. If it takes longer, we will contact you.

Your Account Summary shows the investments Canada Life held for you at the stated extract date. Transactions you requested after that date, or changes made as part of closing the Core Range, may mean the investments that transfer are different.

As part of closing The Retirement Account, we plan to close our range of Canada Life insured pension funds, known as the Core Range. This only affects customers who hold one or more of these funds.

A small number of Core Range funds hold several underlying investments. Before the Core Range closes, those funds will be changed so that they hold a single investment instead. If this applies to you, we have already written to you separately.

The Core Range closure and the later transfer to Parmenion are separate stages. Our investments and Core Range page explains the process in more detail. 

Core Range fund changes

Your Direct Debit collections with Canada Life will stop as we prepare to transfer your investments. Depending on how often your payments are collected, we may already have taken your final collection.

If you want to continue making regular contributions, a new Direct Debit must be set up after your Parmenion SIPP opens. If you have more than one Direct Debit in your Account Summary, each one must be set up again separately. You will need a financial adviser to arrange this.

If you become a Parmenion customer, existing regular Pension Drawdown withdrawals and regular crystallisation instructions will continue. They are separate from your Secure Income payments.

To help prevent delays, regular withdrawals and crystallisations due in October and November 2026 will take place on 12 October and 12 November 2026 respectively. This means they may happen earlier than usual.

Depending on how often yours are due, you may not have another payment or crystallisation due from Canada Life before the transfer. In that case, the next one will be carried out by Parmenion. Parmenion will confirm future arrangements once your new SIPP has been set up. After the transfer, you will need a financial adviser to set up or change these instructions.

If you transfer to another provider, your existing regular withdrawals and crystallisation instructions with Canada Life will stop. You will need to make arrangements with the new provider.

Some services and transactions will be temporarily unavailable at certain points. There will be separate service pauses for the Core Range closure and for the transfer to Parmenion.

For the latest service-pause dates, affected services and transaction restrictions, check our online support hub before requesting a transaction or change. 

Check current service information

The Parmenion SIPP has its own terms, investment choices and charging structure. Charges can affect how much your pension is worth and the investment returns you receive.

Parmenion’s fees are structured differently from Canada Life’s. In most cases, what customers pay is expected to be broadly similar to what they pay with us at the time of transfer. Parmenion will provide a personalised charge breakdown in your Welcome Pack. Your Customer Guide explains how the Parmenion SIPP charges work and compares them with The Retirement Account charges.