More than half of working Canadians are uncertain whether they have the knowledge to plan for retirement, according to a poll conducted for Toronto-based Sun Life Financial Inc.
While 47% of Canadians surveyed feel they have the knowledge to plan their retirement, 53% either believe they do not have this knowledge or unsure of whether they know enough to plan for their retirement.
The results are from the firm’s “unretirement index,” which is Sun Life’s annual study of how Canadians view their retirement and their plans to reach this stage in life.
A significant proportion of people have doubts regarding the path to a successful retirement, with 41% feeling they lack sufficient knowledge regarding how much retirement income they will need. Also, 37% are unaware of how taxes will affect their retirement savings and income. Only half of Canadians are able to state how many years of retirement they expect to have.
Despite this lack of certainty, only 22% of Canadians have a written financial plan and only 33% work with a financial advisor.
Other results find that more than one-third of working Canadians believe they risk running out of money in retirement, as opposed to one in seven retirees who feel the same.
Kevin Dougherty, president of Sun Life Canada, calls this a “tale of two retirements.”
“It is striking that in today’s economic environment, [current working Canadians have] developed a view of retirement that previous generations of workers would not recognize,” he says.
For the first time since Sun Life Financial (TSX:SLF) began surveying the retirement expectations of Canadians, the number of Canadians who expect to be working full time past the age of 65 has now surpassed those who believe that they will be fully retired. This number has grown over the past seven years as three out of five Canadian workers now expect to work either full time or part time when they retire. This is compared to fewer than three out of 10 current workers who expect to be fully retired.
When working Canadians were asked the top reason as to why they expect to be working past traditional retirement age, 21% said it was to earn enough money to pay basic living expenses. For 18% of Canadians, disbelief that government pensions will suffice play the largest part, and 16% would like to earn enough money to live well.
The survey was conducted by Ipsos Reid between Dec. 5 and 22, 2014. A sample of 3,000 Canadians between the ages of 30 and 65 were interviewed online.