Article
Confronting the growing retirement gap:
The financial services industry’s role in securing Canadians’ futures
How have attitudes and behaviours toward retirement and long-term savings been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Deloitte conducted an extensive international survey in 2021 that, perhaps unsurprisingly, revealed a heightened sense of financial insecurity and significantly altered savings priorities. Almost half of the Canadian respondents don’t save specifically for retirement and nearly a quarter have no savings of any kind.
This retirement gap—being financially unable to maintain a desired/specified lifestyle in retirement or even to retire at all—also worsened during the pandemic, with lower contributions and leakage from income-generating asset classes happening amid rising costs of living.
The financial services industry is in a position to tackle many of the issues our survey exposed, including the number-one challenge: the increasing need for guidance, advice, and support regarding financial security. Industry leaders have a significant role to play in narrowing the retirement gap and, with the help of technology, could get more Canadians on a viable track to retirement and better financial security by addressing the issues identified.
Read our report for a closer look at the survey findings.
To learn more, explore the findings from the Global report.
Contributors
Peyman Pardis
Wealth Transformation Leader
Marc Lewis
Senior Manager
Insurance Strategy
Mike Clark
Senior Consultant
Insurance Strategy
Sasha Chatoor
Consultant
Financial Services Transformation
