"We need to continue to understand these changes as we work to better support advisers to help these emerging groups of retirees who will dominate the market in the coming years."
Its research found that retirees predominantly targeted and catered for by financial advisers are growing smaller as a customer group. Classed as ‘financially mature and stress free’, this customer group, which used to represent almost a third of the market, has already contracted by 25% since 2010 and now accounts for around one-fifth of the over 60s market today.
Retirees in this group can be categorised as having very comfortable levels of wealth and health built up over a lifetime of good fortune in employment and family life. The decline of this group can be attributed to societal changes such as fewer people having defined benefit pensions and the declining prospect of home ownership for a generation of renters.
A decade ago, almost a third of those in their 60s and 70s were in this ‘financially mature and stress free’ category, according to research carried out by Canada Life in conjunction with strategic trends forecasting agency Trajectory Partnership. Today these retirees currently make up around 21% of the retirement market.
However, in contrast to the decline of these retirees, two emerging retirement journeys will grow to dominate the retirement market over the next 15 years:
• 'Complex Families, Complex Finances' is expected to be the largest group of retirees by 2035, as divorce, second marriages, step children, and the need to support ageing parents all impact their finances.
• 'Late Financial Bloomers' are also a small but fast-growing group, according to Canada Life. These people get married, buy property, have children and build financial stability later in life, condensing the time they have to build wealth for retirement.
Sean Christian, MD and executive director of Canada Life’s wealth management division, said: “As an industry we have already witnessed a significant shift in client profiles over the last decade and this trend is only going to accelerate. We need to continue to understand these changes as we work to better support advisers to help these emerging groups of retirees who will dominate the market in the coming years. Advisers are perfectly placed to balance the needs of clients today and consider how the more complex retirement journeys of the future will shift how they support and guide a future generation of clients.”
Paul Flatters, co-founder and CEO of Trajectory, added: “Just 10 years ago, the largest group of retirees would have fitted into the ‘Financially Mature and Stress Free’ category, but social norms are changing and disrupting the retirement market. Accelerated by the events of 2020, unemployment rates will continue encouraging boomerang children to return to the family home, while divorce rates, second marriages and the likelihood of needing to pay for elderly parents’ care costs are all on the rise. Coupled with the fact that participation in defined benefit pension schemes is declining and we have a generation of renters facing the prospect of never owning their own property, all of which is impacting the declining dominance of these retirees.”
