Less than half (45 per cent) of Canadians are highly confident they will be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement, says Greenwald and Associates and CANNEX’s 2018 Canadian Guaranteed Lifetime Income study, released May 15.

The study was supported by Sun Life Financial and Great-West Life.

The top retirement concerns of the survey’s respondents include: retirement savings not keeping up with inflation (48 per cent); low interest rates (47 per cent); not earning as much as possible on investments (46 per cent); losing money during downturns in the stock market (46 per cent); not being able to afford long-term care expenses (45 per cent); outliving savings (43 per cent); and, not having money for an emergency (43 per cent).

Basic living expenses

In addition, 23 per cent of respondents said they were worried about their ability to cover basic living expenses in retirement, such as food, rent, and utility bills.

Guaranteed lifetime income

Meanwhile, the number of respondents who rated guaranteed lifetime income as a highly valuable supplement to government sponsored retirement plans rose to 80 per cent, which is up from 60 per cent when the first Canadian GLI study was done in 2015. The survey was conducted with 1,003 pre-retirees and retirees aged 55-75, with more than $100,000 in investable assets.

As in 2015, the study found that financial advisors are the most common source of information about annuities with 24 per cent of respondents saying they heard about the product from an advisor.

Seg funds and annuities

However, the study found that of the respondents who have had a retirement income discussion with an advisor, only 27 per cent said income annuities were mentioned as part of the conversation to provide guaranteed income. Sixteen per cent of respondents said segregated funds had been brought up as part of the guaranteed income discussion.