Manulife Financial is making it easier for plan members of defined contribution (DC) group savings plans them to understand and prepare for their retirement. Its new Steps Retirement Program gives plan members a current estimate of their personal annual retirement income.

Manulife says the estimate informs plan members if they are on track to achieving their retirement income and if they are not, they receive suggestions to help them meet their personal retirement income goal.

The estimate is based on the personal financial information plan members provide including expected contributions, current savings and investor strategy..

Plan members receive the estimate online or in their regular statement.

“The Steps Retirement Program was created to address the needs of plan members and the concerns of plan sponsors. It is all about engaging plan members — making it easy for them to better understand the retirement income they are saving towards,” said Mike Collins, vice president, marketing for Canadian pensions.

Manulife recently published the results of a survey that revealed 43% of Canadians are not confident about meeting their retirement goals.

“To date, we have provided our DC plan members with lots of valuable information on retirement and investment planning, and tools to help them determine how much they need to save by retirement — but there has always been a missing piece, until now,” says Michael Doughty, vice president, Canadian pensions.