What are your concerns when it comes to planning for your retirement?

Do you wonder how you will spend your time? Or do you worry that you may not stay healthy to enjoy your retirement?

And when it comes to saving for retirement, what keeps you up at night? Is it how much to save? Or, is it how much income your retirement savings will generate over the short, medium and long term so you can truly call yourself financially independent.

Two reports recently released have some interesting statistics. BMO’s retirement survey emphasizes that people approaching retirement should be shifting their focus from saving for retirement to income planning for retirement. According to the survey, fewer than half (48 per cent) of the millions of Canadians aged 55 and older currently have a retirement income strategy in place.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB)’s securing the future study asks why, given the competitive labour market and the difficulty of finding and retaining qualified labour, aren’t small medium enterprises (SMEs) in Canada offering retirement plans.

The study found that over 78 per cent of SME’s do not offer a retirement savings plan for three reasons – it’s too expensive (49%), it’s too complicated (35%) and I don’t know where to start (25%).

When I saw these responses I asked myself … Expensive compared to what? And, complicated compared to what?

What I believe the CFIB study missed asking was what overall benefits would be realized for the SME if a group retirement savings plan was implemented? The study seemed to look at the costs without considering the value.

For example, if staff retention was increased, would it then be considered too expensive? Or, if you became more valuable as an employer would you be willing to invest time and money to implement such a program? And finally, if you knew you could rely on professional assistance to help establish and manage a solution would it then be too complicated?

In our experience, companies that implement group retirement savings plans experience benefits beyond simply the costs. It might be something to consider in your business if you’re looking to add value for your employees. And, it might just help you with your own retirement income strategy.

We’d love to hear your thoughts.