Introducing the new Manulife Retirement website
Welcome to our new Manulife Retirement website. We’ve designed it not only for our plan members who we’re lucky enough to work with, but also for anyone looking for information to help them manage their finances. Why? Because we know it can be hard to save for retirement when you’re juggling multiple financial obligations—not just for our members, but for most people. And because we know how hard it can be to find clear, simple, and helpful financial education online. So, that was our goal: create a source of helpful financial information that’s easy to find and easy to understand.
Through our annual financial stress survey,1 we learn how people are feeling about their finances and what their worries are. In order to turn that into a helpful website, we took it further by asking people what they wanted to learn about and how—and tested it a few times to be sure we got it right.
Canadians want help with retirement and other financial worries
We know that Canadians are looking for help managing their finances. In our most recent survey with retirement plan members, just over half told us they’d save more for retirement if they could manage their priorities better. And 80% said that access to financial wellness resources would help them reduce their financial stress.1
The financial stress that Canadians are feeling comes from both specific worries—such as having enough savings—and general worries about the economy.
Having enough saved for emergencies and having enough saved for retirement are Canadians’ top two financial worries.1 When it comes to retirement, more than a third of members said their savings is behind schedule. In order to help them save more for retirement, members are interested in:
- Learning about sources of retirement income
- Learning about Canadian pension plan (CPP) strategies
- Consulting with an advisor1
General worries about the economy are largely a result of continued economic ripples caused by the pandemic, from labour shortages to inflation and interest rates. Canadians are concerned about current economic conditions and their overall financial situation1—and those issues can be complex to tackle.
Working with our members every day, we had a good understanding of what keeps them up a night. But we also needed to know how to reach the people who need the help.
We need to meet people where they are in their lives
When Canadians are looking for financial information, the #1 source of information is financial company websites, online and on mobile.1 To fine-tune what we put on our site and how, we went out and asked more than 800 members what their priorities are and how they’d like to be able to engage with their finances. We know that adults learn when content is relevant—and our customer testing proved that out. People want to be able to easily find information that’s clearly meant for them and where they are in their financial lives. But we also heard that there’s a need for basic financial education.2
The information you need, the way you want it
That’s why you’ll see our educational content arranged a few different ways. You can find helpful information laid out by life stage—getting started, saving regularly, going through a change, and retiring soon—because what you need to know about saving for retirement when you’re starting out in your career is very different from what you need to know when you’re getting ready to retire.
But if there’s something specific you want to learn more about, you can go through our viewpoints—our blog—by topic: financial planning, savings plans, preparing for retirement, investing, and income plans. You can also get to know the differences between the many types of plans that can help you save for retirement and see important tax and contribution deadlines, whether you’re a Manulife plan member or not.
The right content at the right time
If managing your own finances wasn’t hard enough, the pandemic came along and created a continued stream of economic disruption that we continue to wade through. And it brought about complex issues that can have a big impact on personal finances—such as market volatility, inflation, and interest rates. On this website, we can help you understand the financial basics and explain what you’re seeing in the headlines and what it may mean for you—in clear terms to help you build financial knowledge and financial wellbeing. So, come back and see us often—we’re here to help you live your best financial life, to and through retirement.
1 Financial stress survey, Manulife, 2022.
Important disclosures
The commentary in this publication is for general information only and should not be considered legal, financial, or tax advice to any party. Individuals should seek the advice of professionals to ensure that any action taken with respect to this information is appropriate to their specific situation.
