The social and economic context of aging affects how we live, how much we choose to save, and what we can expect from our pensions.
How many members of the working-age population are needed to support those over age 65?
Many more than we might think, which is placing a burden on our public plans. This means that few Canadians are financially ready for retirement. And, interestingly enough, the social and economic context of aging also has an impact on businesses and how they create and maintain their pensions.
In our new paper on the social context of pensions in 2019, we examine some of the challenges that companies and organizations have faced in coming to terms with our changing economic environment and our aging society in Canada and, in fact, throughout the Western world.
By 2025, one in five Canadians will be 65 or older. In essence, the more that we age as a society, the more that we’ll need to build an infrastructure for older adults and the elderly frail. This change in how we live costs money: money that will affect corporate as well as personal taxes. If this change affects taxes, it’s going to also have an impact on every decision a business makes.
Pension planning, in particular, is also deeply affected by social changes in our aging society. The more tenuous our social services for older adults, the more likely that employees will become incentivized by pension benefits. Companies need to be fully aware of how generational shifts may affect new contributions, as well as productivity and growth, and how poor pension management may lead to an increased risk of expensive litigation as more people rely on these plans as their primary means of building a nest egg.
In this paper, we help you to unpack the key socioeconomic indicators that will have an effect on pension planning and management for your company or organization over the next several decades.
The time to start planning is now.