by AdvisorAnalyst.com Editorial Team
Fidelity Canada's 2026 Retirement Report1 lands with a deceptively calm headline. Retirement sentiment is flat. Pre-retiree optimism sits at 60%, unchanged from last year. Retirees hold steady at 80%. On the surface, nothing has moved.
But that surface reading misses the real story — and the real story is a tale of two Canadas.
Among pre-retirees with a written financial plan, positive retirement outlook jumped from 82% to 86% in a single year. Among those without one? Exactly 54% — same as last year. The report's authors put it plainly: "The outlook on retirement improved for pre-retirees with a written financial plan. But only one in five pre-retirees have a plan, which is why the overall outlook remained flat."
That's the architecture of the entire report. The plan isn't a nice-to-have. It's the variable that explains nearly every divergence Fidelity surfaces across financial, emotional, social, and physical preparedness.
Resilience Rewarded — But Anxiety Persists
The macroeconomic backdrop for this year's survey was turbulent by any measure. Tariffs, geopolitical volatility, softening Canadian growth. Yet the TSX finished 2025 up 32%. Markets rewarded discipline. The report notes that "being prepared for retirement often has more to do with proper planning and less to do with most economic fluctuations."
Despite that market resilience, concern remains elevated. Inflation is cited as a negative retirement factor by 80% of respondents — down from 82% but nowhere near resolved. Geopolitical worry dropped from 68% to 60%. Pre-retirees consistently register higher anxiety than retirees across every macroeconomic dimension, which itself may be the most instructive finding: those living in retirement are less afraid of it than those approaching it.
The Government Programs Problem
Nine in ten Canadians expect CPP, QPP, or OAS to factor into their retirement income. Fewer than two-thirds are confident those programs will remain at current benefit levels. The concern about OAS is particularly notable — funded by current tax revenues rather than dedicated reserves, it is more exposed to policy shifts than either CPP or QPP, both of which are actuarially well-funded for decades.
But even full confidence in government programs wouldn't close the gap. Statistics Canada data cited in the report shows the median senior family receiving $36,200 from government sources and $52,100 from everything else. The programs are a floor, not a ceiling. "Even if government programs stay at their current levels," the authors note, "they will not be enough to provide Canadians with the retirement lifestyles they want."
AI Enters the Conversation — Carefully
One of the report's freshest data points involves the accelerating role of artificial intelligence in retirement planning. 26% of pre-retirees and 11% of retirees used AI for financial planning purposes in the past 12 months. The most common uses: investment research, tax questions, budgeting, and retirement savings calculations.
The adoption is real. The trust is not. Only 12% of pre-retiree AI users describe themselves as "very confident" in the accuracy of what they receive. The report's authors are measured but clear: "AI may not understand all that goes into your financial situation. It can also generate hallucinated responses."
Against that backdrop, the advisor's position remains commanding. 57% of all Canadians name a financial advisor as their most trusted source of financial advice — a figure that climbs to 88% among those who already have one.
The Intergenerational Transfer Nobody Is Talking About
The report surfaces a powerful and underplanned trend: Canadians want to give while they're alive. 57% of pre-retirees and 57% of retirees agree they'd like to pass on a significant portion of wealth before they die — a figure that rises to 71% among Canadians born outside the country. Yet 54% of those same respondents say they haven't started any wealth-transfer conversation — not with family, not with a spouse, and critically, not with an advisor. Among those with advisors who want to transfer wealth early, 82% have never raised it.
Meanwhile, 55% of retirees are already financially supporting adult children in some form — covering rent, housing down payments, cosigning mortgages, or absorbing day-to-day costs. 41% of pre-retirees say this support is actively delaying their own retirement.
The Decumulation Blind Spot
For the first time, Fidelity asked Canadians directly about decumulation planning. The results are striking: only 8% of pre-retirees have a detailed, written withdrawal plan. Among retirees 65 and older — people actively drawing down savings — fewer than half have any decumulation strategy at all, written or otherwise.
Of those who do withdraw on a percentage basis, the median rate is 5% — at the upper bound of what the industry considers sustainable. "In retirement," the report's authors observe, "a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy can be as powerful as investment returns."
The Gender Gap Widens
The gap between male and female retirement confidence has persisted for years. In 2026, it widened further. Only 53% of female pre-retirees hold a positive retirement outlook versus 69% of men. Women register higher concern across every macroeconomic variable — the widest gap appears on geopolitical risk, where 69% of women cite it as a negative retirement factor versus 56% of men. Only 50% of pre-retiree women say their retirement savings are still growing, compared to 64% of men.
A written plan narrows the gap substantially — 79% of female pre-retirees with a plan hold a positive outlook — but the plan adoption rate itself remains part of the problem.
5 Key Takeaways for Advisors and Investors
1. The plan is the intervention. Pre-retirees with written plans are twice as likely to feel financially prepared as those without. The conversation that matters most is the one that produces a document.
2. Decumulation is the next advice frontier. Most Canadians arrive at retirement without a withdrawal strategy. Advisors who proactively address sequencing, tax efficiency, and sustainable withdrawal rates are filling a gap clients may not even know they have.
3. Intergenerational wealth transfer is happening — without advice. Clients are already moving money to their children, often reactively. Structured lifetime gifting strategies, RESP contributions, and co-signing implications belong in every plan for clients in their 50s and 60s.
4. Women need a distinct planning conversation. The confidence gap is real, measurable, and widening. Advisors who address women's specific concerns — inflation sensitivity, longer longevity, geopolitical anxiety — will differentiate meaningfully.
5. AI is a discovery tool, not a planning replacement. Clients are using AI to learn. Advisors should welcome that curiosity, meet clients where they are, and clearly demonstrate the judgment, personalization, and accountability that AI cannot provide.
Footnote:
1 Fidelity Investments Canada. “See the value in a written retirement plan.” June 2026
