Canadians need help with goals, financial ruts

While helping clients set and achieve goals is a key part of advisory services, some clients may need a goal-setting refresher amid the RRSP season and pandemic uncertainty, based on recent surveys.

An Edward Jones poll conducted in mid-January found that just under one-third (31%) of respondents planned to contribute to their RRSPs this year.

Of these, 20% said they’re focused on accumulating wealth with no specific goal. And, overall, 31% of respondents said RRSP season was transactional.

A separate survey suggested some Canadians’ financial progress may be stuck in idle.

A BMO poll conducted in early January found that, while 38% of respondents said they were making financial progress, a slight majority of respondents (51%) said they were standing still financially.

And even those who said they were making progress had ongoing financial anxiety related to such things as the pandemic (50%) and fear of unknown expenses (30%).

Perhaps because of these stresses, some respondents put their financial progress at risk.

Nearly one-third (32%) said they often do things to worsen their financial situations, like overspending, BMO found.

About the Edward Jones poll: An online survey of 1,516 Canadians was completed between Jan. 15 and Jan. 17, 2021, using Leger’s online panel. 

About the BMO poll: The research was conducted for BMO’s financial progress index launched in February. From Jan. 5 to Jan. 12, 2021, a sample of 3,413 Canadians ages 18+ were surveyed. Quotas and weighting ensured that the sample’s composition reflected that of the Canadian population according to census parameters.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.