With a five per cent fall in stated retirement confidence, Manulife exec explains how planning can help
Canadians’ retirement confidence is in decline. That’s one of many key takeaways from the 2025 annual report from the National Institute on Ageing (NIA). Between 2024’s survey and 2025 the number of Canadians who feel confident in their retirement dropped sharply, from 62 per cent to 57 per cent. That’s coupled with a decline in the number of Canadians who can afford to retire when they want, down to 29 per cent. The survey found that 22 per cent of Canadians over 50 have less than $5,000 saved for retirement. A further 26 per cent have less than $100,000 saved. Only 15 per cent of Canadians have more than $500,000 saved for retirement, and given the trend of greater longevity and retirements that could last 40 years or more, those numbers don’t inspire confidence.
Fraser Wiswell, Head of Global Retirement Participant Outcomes at Manulife, sees a concerning trend emerging, where Canadians’ financial security, confidence, and preparedness has not kept up with their increasing lifespans. He outlined, though, how planning, advice, and access to savings vehicles can help reverse this trend.
“We're seeing across all the three core categories of social, financial and health, people feel like they're falling behind. Which is not what you want from a story about longevity, you really want that to be a good news story for Canadians,” Wiswell says. “It's a combination of financial preparedness and lack of planning from a financial perspective, as well as increase of cost of living, and then the longevity impact of knowing that you're going to have longer to live… That leads to a quite a challenging situation when you add up the cost of living increase and what people are feeling today with the prospect of a very long-term retirement, up to 40 years.”
Wiswell notes that the length of retirement now facing some Canadians means they could be retired for a longer period than they were working, making saving during those working years essential. According to Statistics Canada, only around 37 per cent of Canadians are members of a registered pension plan, with about two-thirds of those 37 per cent members of defined benefit pension plans.
Wiswell stresses that his organization would like to see a lot more workplace pension coverage in Canada, which he argues can really help people get on the right track. The challenge, however, is that many Canadians don’t stay in the same job the way past generations did, making this kind of access challenging.
Where significant difference can be made, Wiswell notes, is in how Canadians access retirement planning. The 2025 NIA survey found that 35 per cent of Canadians over 50 want to retire but have no specific plans or decisions. Only 18 per cent said they had a plan for retirement. Those with plans, he says, tend to be more confident and aware of the specific challenges they now face. Planning needs are complex, however, and need to account for pieces like housing, inflation, unforeseen costs, family legacies, and the costs of long-term care.
“Having a plan that everyone agrees on and understands the underlying assumptions on is a really good start,” Wiswell says. “When people are working with advisors, I think they reallyt need to look at social health, housing, and financial planning as part of a big picture.”
While the wealth management industry has shifted to more of a planning and service model over the past few decades, the fee-based nature of that business means that firms are often disincentivized to provide plans for lower income and lower net worth Canadians. Wiswell acknowledges this issue and believes that if firms can leverage technology to better align those potential clients with somewhat less complex solutions, that can go a long way to widening access to financial plans without compromising the bottom-line for advisory firms and practices.
For their part, Wiswell explains that Manulife is trying to build out an even deeper platform of workplace savings plans and solutions for employers, including target date funds and managed accounts. All those products, however, rely on the base of individuals’ savings, so encouraging retirement savings by any means is essential in Wiswell’s view.
While the response to rising longevity and poor readiness by some has been to call for postponing retirement or working past traditional retirement ages, Wiswell notes that many Canadians don’t retire when they choose to. Retirement is often forced on them by health issues or family obligations. Rather than expecting people to extend their time in the workforce, he argues the best changes can come from a focus on how we get Canadians to save while they’re working.
“Longevity should mean more time, more connection, more possibilities. And what people need is help navigating the way there, and it's going to look different for everyone,” Wiswell says. “Thankfully, we have social security programs to help cover some of the basics, and what we need to do is just help people with financial literacy and planning to make sure they do get that optimistic retirement picture that we all are aiming for.”
