Nearly One Half (46%) Of Ontarians Have No Financial Plan To Save For Their Retirement

Toronto, ON - As the population of Ontario continues to age and baby-boomers approach the years of retirement, a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of the Investor Education Fund finds that nearly one half (46%) of Ontarian adults say they have or had no financial plan to save for their retirement. Furthermore, despite the fact that six in ten (60%) Ontarians have financial investments (excluding the home in which they live), only one in three (36%) Ontarians have a financial advisor, and even fewer (9%) have a stock broker. Focusing specifically on investors reveals that four in ten (40%) investors claim to not have a financial advisor.

From among those individuals who have both investments and a broker or advisor, it appears that, for many, communication between individuals and their advisors/brokers could be more frequent, with one third (32%) of Ontarians claiming to speak with their advisor or broker about the performance of their portfolio only once a year or less frequently. In fact, most Ontarians (57%) speak with their advisor or broker only a few times a year, while just one in ten (11%) Ontarians speak with their advisor or broker at least once a month.

In a similar vein, some Ontarians perhaps do not have the best relationships with their advisors, with one quarter (24%) indicating that they do not ask a lot of questions of their advisors or brokers, for reasons including a lack of confidence and knowledge.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of the Investor Education Fund from Sep 3 to 7, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 905 adult Ontarians was interviewed online. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

Nearly One Half (46%) Have No Financial Plan to Save for Retirement... Nearly one half (46%) of Ontarian adults claim to not have (or didn't have if already retired) a financial plan to save for their retirement. Furthermore, nine in ten (88%) don't have, or didn't have, a financial plan for buying a home, and six in ten (58%) Ontarians with children have no plan to save for their children's education. Examining those most likely to have a plan to save for their retirement reveals that:

• Men (58%) are more likely than women (51%) to have a financial plan to save for retirement
• Older Ontarians, aged 55 and older, are more likely (64%) than middle-aged (61%), aged 35 to 54, or younger Ontarians (35%), aged 18 to 34, to have (or have had) a financial plan to save for retirement.
• Those whose families earn more than $60,000 a year are much more likely (67%) to have a financial plan to save for retirement than those whose families earn between $30,000 and $60,000 a year (47%), or below $30,000 a year (22%).

While Six In Ten (60%) Ontarians Have Financial Investments, Far Less Have An Advisor (36%) Or Broker (9%)...

Six in ten Ontarians have investments (60%), but might not be making the most of their investments, with only four in ten (36%) claiming to have a financial advisor or a broker (9%). Among Ontarians who have investments, four in ten (40%) do not have an advisor.

• While men (64%) are more likely than women (57%) to have investments, women are slightly more likely (37%) than men (36%) to have a financial advisor. Men, however, are more likely (10%) to have a stock broker (8%).
• Nor surprisingly, older Ontarians are more likely (80%) than middle-aged Ontarians (66%) or younger Ontarians (33%) to have financial investments. Older Ontarians are also more likely (53%) to have an advisor than middle-aged (43%) or younger (11%) Ontarians.

Many Are Not Regularly Speaking To Their Advisor Or Broker About The Performance Of Their Portfolio ...

From among those individuals who have both investments and a broker or advisor, it appears that, for many, communication between investors and their advisors/brokers about the performance of their portfolios is not too frequent, with one third (32%) of Ontarians claiming to speak with their advisor or broker only once a year or less frequently. In fact, most Ontarians (57%) speak with their advisor or broker about this topic only a few times a year, while just one in ten (11%) Ontarians speak with their advisor or broker at least once a month.

• Younger Canadians are most likely (14%) to not speak with their advisor or broker at all about the performance of their portfolio. They are also the most likely to speak with their advisor just a few times a year (65%).
• Older Canadians are the most likely (15%) to speak with their advisor or broker at least once a month about the performance of their portfolio.

Those With Lower Incomes Less Likely To Ask Questions...

It appears that those who have investments and an advisor, but whose families earn less than $30,000 a year are most likely to not ask many questions of their broker, with 35% of these individuals indicating that this is the case. This is compared to just 24% of the entire Ontario population of investors with advisors or brokers.

• Conversely, those whose families earn at least $60,000 a year are most likely (77%) to ask questions of their brokers or advisors about the investments that they are recommending.
• Women (38%) are more likely than men (32%) to rely on their broker to tell them how their portfolio has performed. The same can be true about older Canadians being more likely (38%) than middle-aged Canadians (36%) or younger Canadians (15%) to rely on their broker to tell them how their portfolio has performed.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Sean Simpson
Research Manager
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
(416) 572-4474
[email protected]

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Ipsos Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader, the country's leading provider of public opinion research, and research partner for loyalty and forecasting and modelling insights. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos Reid employs more than 600 research professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in the country, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and online panels. Ipsos Reid's marketing research and public affairs practices offer the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada, all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, Ipsos Reid offers syndicated information or custom solutions across key sectors of the Canadian economy, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, retail, and technology & telecommunications. Ipsos Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

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