Insurance Advisory Service March 2017

Conversations about retirement, and the financial needs of retirees, have begun to crescendo across the wealth management industry as the effects of an aging population and declining defined benefit coverage take hold. Moving forward, retirees appear as though they will be increasingly reliant on retail financial services providers throughout retirement. Winning retirement is climbing wealth managers’ priorities in tandem. As competition has intensified within the insurance industry—which has traditionally been at the vanguard of retirement income products—bank-owned and independent fund companies have upped their own efforts to capture their share of the retirement market. Although demand for retirement income products would appear to be strong, sales of guaranteed income products have not yet felt the impact of increased demand. This fact, and the importance of owning this product space, has not been lost on insurers and has led many to re-evaluate their retirement product shelf in detail. Both product manufacturers and distributors alike, however, have come to acknowledge that retirement is not simply a product story. Supported by Canada’s regulatory landscape, the personal nature of retirement has led to a greater emphasis on holistic planning, providing an opportunity for advisors to deliver value—a necessity in today’s post-CRM2 setting. In this month’s special feature, Retirement Re-evaluated: Insurers Approach Retirement from a Different Angle, we delve into the industry’s renewed approach to retirement through both distribution and product lenses. In addition to this feature story, Section 3 provides the results of our Q4 2016 Payout Annuity Survey. This spotlight includes a look at new premiums by distribution channel, by annuity type and by region.