More clients see value in working with advisors: poll

A greater share of Canadians with advisors see value in working with financial professionals, suggests a BMO poll released on Wednesday.

The poll, conducted in late November 2020, found that of those who used advisors (70% of respondents), 62% said a professional was “better equipped to provide guidance to achieve their goals,” BMO said in a release.

That result represented a 12% increase since 2019, BMO said.

The poll also found that the share of those who planned to contribute to their RRSPs (or had already done so) held firm amid the pandemic.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of all respondents said they’d contribute to RRSPs, a percentage consistent with last year’s findings, the release said.

BMO also found a decrease in early withdrawals among RRSP holders, with 28% of respondents withdrawing funds in 2020 versus 37% in 2019.

Most early withdrawals continued to be for home down payments.

Still, 6% of respondents made RRSP withdrawals for pandemic-related expenses, the poll found.

Other results also pointed to a need for retirement planning.

More than half of respondents (53%) didn’t have a dollar amount estimate for what they needed to retire. The average amount that respondents thought they’d need was $1.4 million — an increase of 6% since 2019.

Further, respondents were less sure about their retirement plans relative to 2019.

The degree to which respondents were confident they’d have enough money to retire at their desired age decreased 4% (to 54%) compared to 2019, the release said.

About the BMO poll: The survey was conducted between Nov. 17 and Nov. 23, 2020 by Pollara Strategic Insights via an online poll of 1,500 adult Canadians. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.