Financial security and retirement readiness

At the beginning of 2023, we launched an updated sunlife.ca/mymoney website for our Financial Wellness webinars. Along with a new look and feel, members can now choose their level of financial literacy and attend webinars that best meet their needs. We’ve also added a “Find out more” section on each topic’s page, to provide an opportunity for further learning for those interested in diving a little deeper. These improvements lead to a 50% increase of the average attendance per session.

We encourage you to continue to promote the Financial Wellness webinars among your employees to help them grow their knowledge and take control of their money. You can find promotional materials here. Plan members can register for the sessions in a few easy steps directly on sunlife.ca/mymoney.

To provide your plan members with financial literacy and education materials, visit the Sponsor Resource Centre.

Retirement readiness means ensuring plan members have saved enough to provide sufficient income throughout their retirement. Our vision is to give working Canadian’s the confidence and support to live and retire financially secure. This year, we launched a new website and retirement toolkit to provide members valuable information on what they can do to plan and prepare for retirement.

Plan members over the age of 55 received an email encouraging them use the toolkit and book an appointment with a licensed financial services consultant* if they want help with creating a financial roadmap. We were pleased to see that the engagement rates for this communication were higher than industry average (CTR 5.5% vs 2.15%). 

Many plan members need support and guidance on their financial and retirement journey. This year we were very excited to launch 360 Plan Advice for our GRS plan members. It’s a seamless support to and through retirement. 360 Plan Advice offers one-to-one support through licensed financial services consultants* that are dedicated to workplace savings plans, at no additional cost.

The rollout is organized in phases and 360 Plan Advice will gradually be available to all our Clients this year.

Watch the sponsor video

Watch the video for plan members

Our state-of-the-art planning tool – and it's part of 360 Plan Advice. Using this tool, our licensed financial services consultants* can help build a plan member’s financial roadmap – and update it as the plan member’s life circumstances change.

We continue to reach out to plan members at pivotal life moments, encouraging them to use these resources to build their financial roadmap and plan for their retirement. We’re seeing great engagement from plan members, whether that would be using the tools and resources provided, maximizing their workplace plan or talking to our financial services consultants*.

In the coming weeks, GRS Plan members will be able to use the Sun Life One Plan tool on their own via the plan member secure site. Stay tuned for more information coming soon!

To support a better understanding of decumulation strategies, we’ve launched a new decumulation playbook. It outlines the ways we can support plan sponsors in helping their plan members generate adequate and sustainable retirement income. It also sets out the different roles plan sponsors can play in supporting their plan members both before and after retirement.

Canadians are looking for solutions to convert their retirement savings to income. We’re focused on helping you support your plan members in their decumulation planning and continue to provide content and resources to help tackle the most pressing decumulation topics. This year we added three new articles to our My Money in Retirement Decumulation Hub series.

One of the articles, called Leave a legacy or pursue bucket lists? considers the complexities of legacy planning. It explores how you can guide plan members towards comprehensive retirement and legacy planning that balances wants and needs. The article also looks at how taxes, lifestyle and investments affect this planning.

Another article - These emotions get in the way of saving and planning for the future - looks at the psychology of retirement planning. With the help of emerging science of behavioural economics, it is shedding light on the errors people commonly make around money. It delves into how you, as a plan sponsor, can help your members understand the emotions that hinder or assist with good retirement planning.

Last but not least, Dynamic Pensions – Does it Hold the Promise to Provide Retirement Security? article considers the future impact of dynamic pension plans, including commentary from Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, director of financial security research for the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University.

You can also check out our video mapping Celine’s my money in retirement journey here.