LIF maximum withdrawal calculator.

Worked example

A LIF worth $250,000 on January 1, owner turning 65 this year, with the November bond rate at or below 6%. Payments run from this year to the end of the year the owner reaches 90, which is 90 − 65 + 1 = 26 annual payments, each discounted at 6%. The present value of $1 paid at the start of each of those 26 years is F = 13.7834. The maximum is $250,000 ÷ 13.7834 = $18,137.82 (7.26% of the balance), about $1,511.48 a month.

The formula, as written in the regulation

Schedule 1.1, section 6 of Ontario Regulation 909 says the income paid in a fiscal year must not exceed the greatest of:

1. the fund's investment earnings (including unrealized gains and losses) in the previous fiscal year;
2. for a fund set up by a direct transfer from another LIF or LRIF, in the year after it is established, the combined previous-year earnings of the transferring and receiving funds (this tool does not model this case);
3. C ÷ F, where C is the fund's value at the start of the fiscal year and F is the present value, at the start of the fiscal year, of an annuity of $1 payable annually in advance to December 31 of the year the owner reaches 90.

For F, the interest rate for each of the first 15 fiscal years is the greater of 6% and the nominal long-term Government of Canada bond rate for November of the year before (CANSIM series V122487, published through the Bank of Canada). For the sixteenth and later years it is 6%. In the year money is transferred in from another LIF or LRIF the maximum is zero, and a first fiscal year shorter than 12 months is pro-rated by months ÷ 12, with part of a month counting as a month.

How this tool reads the formula

The regulation does not publish a table; it gives the formula, so this tool computes it. We take “age” to be the age you reach during the fiscal year (your age on December 31), so the number of payments is 90 − age + 1. Your institution may round differently or use a slightly different age convention, and it sets the figure that actually binds you. At 90 or older, F is 1 and the formula allows the whole balance. The result is also capped at the balance.

Ontario only

This is the Ontario rule for LIFs governed by Schedule 1.1 (funds set up under Ontario pension legislation). Other provinces and the federal rules use different formulas, and an older Ontario LIF governed by Schedule 1 uses a different calculation. Your LIF statement says which applies.

Source, read 1 October 2026: ontario.ca/laws — R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 909 (Pension Benefits Act), Schedule 1.1, section 6. e-Laws currency date 28 September 2026; consolidation period from 1 July 2026; last amendment O. Reg. 170/26. The 6% floor and the 15-year rate rule are quoted from section 6(2) of that Schedule.