Individuals who receive advice are more likely than others to express confidence in the adequacy of their retirement savings to maintain their standard of living in retirement, according to a study released today by Statistics Canada.

About two-thirds of “near-retirees” anticipate that their retirement income will be adequate or more than adequate to maintain their standard of living once they have left the workforce.

While most Canadians approaching retirement receive financial advice, including advice about retirement planning and programs, almost three in 10 do not, StatsCan says.

Individuals who do not receive financial advice are less likely to expect their retirement income to be adequate than those who do receive advice. “This relationship remains even when other characteristics such as income, pension coverage and registered retirement savings plan assets are taken into account,” StatsCan says.

Of the 7.2 million Canadians aged 45 to 59 in 2007, about 80% or 5.7 million were actively or recently employed and had not previously retired.

Of these 5.7 million near-retirees, 71% received financial advice from at least one source, and 50% received advice from at least one source in the financial industry. Almost three in 10 (29%) did not receive financial advice from any source.

While most individuals approaching retirement said they understood Canada’s public retirement income programs, such as the Canada Pension Plan, Quebec Pension Plan and Old Age Security, one-quarter said they did not understand these programs at all.

Among the study’s other key findings:

> individuals who are further from their planned age of retirement are less likely to receive retirement-related information;

> near-retirees with lower incomes and fewer assets are less likely to receive retirement-related information; and

> immigrants who arrived in Canada since 1990 were less likely to receive financial advice than individuals born in Canada.