Survey finds Canadians’ financial confidence slipping

While their confidence in the stock market and the economy hasn’t wavered, Canadians are feeling a bit less confident about their personal finances, according to a new survey from IG Wealth Management.

The Winnipeg-based firm reported results from its latest IG Financial Confidence Index survey, which saw its overall reading decline by three points from 59 to 56.

The survey — conducted by Ipsos with a sample of 2,600 respondents from across Canada between Sept. 23 and 30 — found that overall confidence in the stock market and the Canadian and global economies was more or less unchanged from last year.

“What contributed to the small decline year-over-year, are areas related to personal finance,” the report found.

“While this year’s result showed a small decrease, the good news is that the main factors which contributed to it are well within all Canadians’ control to change,” Jeff Carney, president and CEO of IG Wealth Management, said in a statement.

The survey found that both seniors (aged 65 and over) and recent immigrants to Canada (people who have been in Canada for less than three years) are more confident than the national average. The index reading for seniors came in at 64, and recent immigrants recorded a 66 on the index.

“It’s encouraging to see that both seniors and newcomers scored higher than the national average when it comes to their level of financial confidence, especially since both groups have many unique challenges,” Carney said.

“For example, many Canadians are so focused on saving for retirement that they don’t realize how complicated retirement can be including developing an RRSP withdrawal strategy and taxation optimization. And those who are new to Canada face a variety of challenges, including understanding new financial systems, savings, taxation and getting access to credit to get their families settled,” he noted.

The credibility interval for an online survey of 2,600 respondents is ±2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.