The inaugural Making the most of your retirement with Sun Life panel discussion was held on December 9, 2025 (10th for FR). During the discussion, we walked through some of the top questions, concerns, and surprises that retirement can bring. The session focused on more than just financial aspects. We also looked at physical and mental components of retirement as we talked about:
- taking care of your wellness in retirement
- addressing common questions you may have about retirement, and
- discussing some of the supports and solutions available at Sun Life to help safeguard your retirement journey.
Wellness in retirement involves more than just finances. It's important to focus on your physical, mental, and social health as well. True wellness is about quality of life and sense of well-being. This comes from maintaining good physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and social wellness. Physical wellness includes nutrition, exercise, and ability to care for oneself. It also means having a safe and accessible living environment. Mental wellness is understanding your emotions and sharing feelings in a healthy way. It involves lifelong learning and new challenges too. Social wellness means having satisfying relationships and contributing to your community. All of these dimensions of wellness work together to improve your quality of life in retirement. Wellness is important at every stage. Focusing on it in your retirement can help you live longer and better enjoy this next phase of life.
<On the slide:> A ven diagram showing Wellness at the centre and Financial, Physical and Mental as the overlapping circles. <End slide>
In 2024 Sun Life and the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) collaborated on a survey to seek retirement perspectives and experiences of both retirees and semi- retirees. Through the survey we gathered information on how they have planned for retirement, general awareness of financial products, sentiments on retirement experience and the impact health can have in retirement.
With over 3,500 responses, we saw overall, that there’s a lack of planning in advance of retirement, and some particular concerns when retirement begins. We referenced the survey and its’ findings throughout the discussion.
The questions that we asked the panel were:
#1: How do physical and mental health impact retirement wellness?
#2: What are some of the most pressing financial concerns and questions facing Canadian retirees?
#3: What are some of the surprises that the first day, week, month, or year of retirement can bring?
#4: How can creating a financial roadmap help Canadians enjoy a smoother transition into retirement?
#5: How can Sun Life help retirees make the most of their retirement?
We encourage you to join our next live panel discussion so you can hear the interactive answers and discussion with the panel.
In order to assist you with your planning, Sun Life has a variety of tools available on our member site mysunlife.ca and on our public site sunlife.ca.
The Planning your best retirement page on mysunlife.ca has a wealth of information to assist our Group Plan members in your planning, as does the Life Moments – Planning your retirement page on our public site for those of you watching today who don’t have a group retirement plan with Sun Life. If you’re early in your retirement planning journey, you may want to start there.
And the value of working with a Retirement Consultant (known as a Financial Security Advisor in Quebec) to build your knowledge and confidence, and to help you create a custom retirement roadmap, tailored to your situation, can not be overstated.
Retirement planning requires a thoughtful, holistic, and proactive approach. As you envision what you want your retirement to look like we encourage you to remember that it’s about more than just money— there are many interconnected factors, including mental, physical and social factors. By understanding the unique challenges and opportunities you face, you can take control of your retirement well-being.
Working with professionals can help mitigate risks and incorporate best practices to build a secure and fulfilling financial future for yourself and your family.
According to retirement blogger Fritz Gilbert, “Describing the first week of retirement is like describing the taste of chocolate. It’s really good, but it’s hard to describe.”
As you prepare for your first week, months and years of retirement we encourage you to consider what some of your retirement questions, concerns, and surprises may be. We thank you for being here and wish you physical, mental and financial wellness on this new and exciting phase of your life journey and we encourage you to join our next live panel discussion.