Market research, insight, data and advocacy

In March, we hosted our annual GRS Market Update, hosted by Angela Maitland, GRS Investment Solutions Executive. With a record-breaking 385 attendees, the webinar featured the following expert panelists:

• Frances Donald, Senior Vice President & Chief Economist, Royal Bank of Canada
• Martin Gerber, Director, President & Chief Investment Officer, Head of Asset Allocation Connor, Clark and Lunn Investment Management Ltd.
• Christine Tan, Assistant Vice-President, Portfolio Management Sun Life Global Investments

Our panelists provided insights on Canada’s economic “immune system”, the impacts of potential tariffs, and strategies for navigating market uncertainty in both the short and long term.

In partnership with the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), Sun Life hosted a webinar entitled Decumulation dialogue: Retirement realities and the path forward. The session was moderated by Nima Sabet, Insights Manager at Sun Life Group Retirement Services.

Panelists included:

• Dr. Bonnie-Jean MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research at the NIA.
• Barbara Sanders, Associate Fellow at the NIA and Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University.
• Oricia Smith, President, SLGI Asset Management Inc. and Senior Vice-President, Investment Solutions at Sun Life Canada.

The webinar shared research from the NIA focused on helping Canadians make better decisions and get the most from the CPP/QPP program. Key findings revealed that delaying CPP/QPP from age 60 to 70 can more than double lifetime benefits, yet only 5% of Canadians delay to age 70, with the average person losing about $100,000 in lifetime income by claiming early. 

The webinar also highlighted Sun Life’s decumulation support, centred on advice, digital tools and innovative product offerings such as the My Retirement Income solution.  

Sun Life’s Jackie Patel, AVP of Marketing and Communication, and Fiona Tam, AVP, Strategy, Data and Analytics, presented on “Gender Dynamics and Workplace Savings: Insights from new research and the 2025 Designed for Savings report”. 

The presenters examined recent research on gender dynamics in retirement planning and financial well-being, examining issues such as the gender pay gap, retirement preparedness, investment behaviour, and financial literacy. It also focused on women-specific insights in wealth, including attitudes toward workplace savings plans and preferences for retirement planning.

They presenters also outlined key findings from our new 2025 Designed for Savings report, offering a comprehensive overview of capital accumulation plans in Canada.

The DC Plan Summit presentation by Yashar Zarrabian, Regional Vice-President, Quebec focused on revolutionizing retirement income solutions for Canadian retirees. 

Retirement income planning is one of the most pressing challenges facing Canadians and the pension industry. With a staggering third of Canadians struggling to plan for their golden years and five million set to turn 65 this decade, Zarrabian emphasized that the time to act is now. Plan members need engagement and advice throughout their saving years and beyond. And new solutions like MyRetirement Income have become another tool on the shelf to help Canadians fill an important gap in the decumulation landscape.

Designed for Savings is our biennial report on capital accumulation plans (CAPs). This examination is based on our database of 1.5 million CAP members, the largest pool of CAP data in Canada.

The 2025 edition captured data about growth rates, behavioural patterns, and how plan members navigated market uncertainty in early 2025. The report also included breakthrough findings on the measurable power of financial advice.

Some highlights from the report include:

• Combined plan sponsor and plan member contributions grew 6% to an average of $9,670.
• Account balances grew 16-18% across mid-career workers.
• Target date funds now hold 42% of all assets (up from 29% in 2018) and 52% of all new contributions.
• Plan members weathered Q1 2025 market volatility: there was risk rebalancing for some with large balances, normal withdrawal levels and sustained participation.

For more details visit the Designed for Savings page and download the full 2025 report.

Member mindsets, motivations and metrics is an in-depth study that combines survey insights from 1,981 Sun Life workplace plan members with their actual savings data. It's the first research of this scale to merge plan member attitudes, behaviours, and real plan data.

Key findings from the study include: 

• More than half of plan members count their workplace plan as a main source of retirement income.
• Investor confidence drives 64% higher savings, while knowledge adds just 12%. 
• The employer match is the most powerful motivator for plan member contributions. 
• 36% of women avoid financial advice due to insufficient savings. 

To read more insights, visit the Member mindsets, motivations and metrics page and download the full report.  

Sun Life is committed to representing the interests of you and your plan members with governments and regulators across Canada. We participate in public consultations, lead discussions within our industry, and meet with government and regulators on laws and policy.

For example, we continue to advocate for efficient regulatory frameworks to enable Variable Payment Lifetime Annuities and greater adoption of automatic features (such as automatic enrolment, deductions, and contribution rate escalation).

Recently, we were successful in securing changes to the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities’ (CAPSA) Guideline No. 3 – Guidelines for Capital Accumulation Plans.

These changes included:

• Streamlined requirements for plan member statements.
• Generally positive statements from CAPSA on automatic features.
• A grace period for implementation until January 1, 2026, where IT or process changes are required.

And on an ongoing basis, we work closely with our industry association – the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) – to advance policy changes that will benefit plan sponsors, plan members and all Canadians.

Based on the 2024 updates to Guideline No.3 for Capital Accumulation Plans (CAPs) by the Canadian Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA), we implemented changes and enhancements to align with the guidelines to ensure that plan sponsors remain compliant. 

What are the changes?

1. Expanded list of plan member responsibilities. New responsibilities for plan members can be found on a dedicated page within mysunlife.ca, and in plan member booklets. Enrolment guides and statements direct plan members to where they can learn more about their responsibilities.
2. Plan member statements. Our plan member statements are built to include many optional modules. We've turned on the modules recommended by the guideline for all plan sponsors. The following modules were added to annual statements in 2025:  
   • The Allocation of contributions to the chosen investment option.
   • Plan member’s personal rate of return.
     As a reminder, section 5.1 of CAPSA Guideline No. 3 outlines what needs to be included in plan member statements as of January 1, 2026.
3. Maintaining oversight of a CAP. Sun Life is ready to support plan sponsors with our CAP Certificate, CAPsure, and CAP readiness documents. For easy access, these documents are available on the Plan Sponsor Services secure site.
4. Reviewing plan and governance framework. Our Planalytics™ and Retirement Readiness reporting provide data that can help with plan review.