Many retirement products in the market have been built with the understanding that some Canadians want security via fixed income based solutions. In our view, the reality and disconnect in the industry is that people are no longer buying products, they are buying income solutions.

This distinction is critically important with the increased need in the market for Canadians to shift their mentality from accumulation to income. And, the financial industry has been typically more focused on accumulating wealth and not turning the funnel around to effectively understanding consumers' process to approaching retirement.

This paradigm also faces critical challenges as Canadians have exhibited a degree of tolerance with the rate at which their investments grow, but whether it's an annuity or another type of income solution, the income decision at the point of retirement is arguably a more sensitive one.

The goal of the Canadian Boomers and the New Retirement study is to provide understanding and insights of pre-retiree and retiring Canadians as well as advisor views and decision-making processes on retirement income related products.

Specific objectives and informational needs include:

• Determining current awareness and perception of income and annuity products among Canadians
• Understanding how people approaching retirement think about or decide what type of income solution is right for them
• Determining the emotional triggers/worries/issues that consumers are dealing with as they make these decisions
• Examining the role of a financial advisor in the decision making/purchase process
• Determining the kind of information and tools that help people make decisions about retirement
• Exploring current tools used to help customers make choices or understand what income they can get from government programs, employer pension plans as well as their own sources
• Understanding the time horizons that people expect their retirement income to last
• Comprehending the customers' perspective on the implications of market performance, interest rates, taxation and inflation as well as the understanding of liquidity versus guaranteed options, pay-out annuities and other product options
• Determining when pre-retirees start thinking about what type of retirement products are best for them
• Determining the consistency in the customer's risk tolerance once they become cash-out customers rather than cash-in customers
• Understanding the current financial advisor is the one they would turn to in retirement
• Determining the proportion that want to postpone converting their RRSP until they reach 71 in order to maximize the tax free growth