An educational campaign on investing for retirement earned Russell Investments the IFIC Investor Education Award at the Canadian Investment Awards and Gala on Wednesday night in Toronto.

A team of five judges determined that Russell’s campaign, entitled ‘Don’t retire from investing, invest for retirement,’ best met the award’s criteria of originality, relevance, quality and accessibility of investor education material.

The campaign deals with the fear many senior investors have of outliving their financial resources. Russell stresses that investing does not end at retirement and that assets can still continue to grow during retirement.

Second-place honours went to Mackenzie Financial for its 15-page booklet, entitled ‘til you’re blue in the face,’ a parent-teen discussion guide to thrift and savings.

Fidelity Investments and Sun Life tied for third-place standing for their retirement Web sites. Judges commended the interaction and information available on both sites.

“IFIC is pleased to see the investment fund industry provide such a wide range of educational campaigns aimed at everyone from the teenager to the post-retirement investor,” said Joanne De Laurentiis, IFIC’s president and CEO. “These campaigns speak to the need for all kinds of investors to be financially literate and better enable themselves to save for their own financial futures.”

Judges for the award included Glorianne Stromberg, chair of the Public Accountants Council for the Province of Ontario; Toronto Star personal finance columnist Ellen Roseman; Gerald Bissett, chair of Learning Library Inc.; Helene Vukovich, associate dean of the faculty of business and arts and design at George Brown College and Pat Dunwoody, vice-president of member services and communications with IFIC.

IE