BPM Talk

[00:00:10] Manal Ali: Hello and welcome to BPM. I'm Manal Ali, Senior Content Specialist here at Benefits and Pensions Monitor. Today's discussion examines new research from Sun Life that looks at how workplace plan members assess their retirement readiness, how those perceptions compare with actual account data, and what the gap between the two means for plan sponsors. Earlier this year, Sun Life released its Designed for Savings report, drawing on the saving behaviour of more than 1.5 million plan members. In late 2025, the organization extended that work with a second research effort that paired survey responses with real account data. We're joined today by Hilda Tang, Senior Vice President of Client growth and solutions at Sun Life Canada. Hilda leads the Sun Life Group's Wealth Platform, helping Canadians feel more confident about their retirement and financial futures. She's passionate about making guidance, digital tools, and innovative solutions easier for plan members to not only access, easier to act on as well. Outside of her work at Sun Life, Hilda is also known for her leadership in digital innovation. She's the Chair Emeritus of the Board for Code for Canada, a national nonprofit that brings together technology and design experts to tackle civic challenges. Hilda, welcome.

[00:01:40] Hilda Tang: Thank you. Thank you, Manal. Thanks for having me on BPM Talk. It's exciting to be here and also very grateful for the opportunity to share the latest insights from our research.

[00:01:43] Manal Ali: Incredible. So Hilda, this is the second major research report at Sun Life Group Retirement Services that you've released over the last year. And so back in June 2025, the Design for Savings report was published, which gave us this incredible view into the saving behaviours of 1.5 million plant members. So what made Sun Life kind of want to go back to dig even deeper with this new research that you launched towards the end of 2025? Yeah, as you mentioned, the Design for Savings report is one of those that capture the crux of the workplace savings plan in Canada and helps us examine the what, the actual savings behaviour of that 1.5 million plan members across 8,600 group plans. And it does give us that really rich view into members' actions. So how they save, what motivates them, and what features help them build better outcomes. Now, it's only the report of its kind in our industry, and it's become an essential resource for plan sponsors and advisors. Now, at the same time, while the design for savings helped us understand what members are doing, it raised a bigger question for us on why do they make the decisions they do? So this led us to dig deeper to pursue this new research, which we partnered with Ipsos to conduct an independent study with nearly 2000 Sun Life Group plan members. And what made this research truly unique is that we match survey responses to actual account data. Now, to our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has compared what members say you that they actually do inside their workplace savings plans. So by pairing the attitudes with behaviours, we're now able to create this 360 picture, not just of working Canadians' financial knowledge, but their confidence, their perception, decision-making patterns, and what's really important is the outcomes that follow. So combining the what and the why helps us to unlock this deeper insight and then ultimately better opportunities to support members on their path to retirement.

[00:03:46] Manal Ali: Got it. So I want to take a little deeper into matching the survey responses to actual account data. So how did members describe their workplace saving plans? Like how important were the plans to them? What did they value in their group plans?

[00:04:01] Hilda Tang: Yeah. So one of the things I mentioned, we matched the survey response to actual account data. So what stood out is how critical and central workplace plans are to members' financial lives. For many Canadians, the workplace savings plans is foundational to retirement readiness. 52% of our members told us that workplace plan is the primary source of retirement income. And on average, this comprises 36% of their total investable assets. So what this means is that it's not just a side account that they have for their money. For many members, their group savings plan is the anchor of their entire savings for retirement. And so we also look deeper. It's not just about, you know, what they have but then what they really value. And that's where the perception comes in. So when we look at what members value most in the group plan, financial support came through loud and clear. 97% said financial incentives matter most. And 92% want increased employer contributions. Now, this is not surprising because we all want our employers to give us more money, right? Now, joking aside on that, what really surprised us is that that same preference for more contributions are equally ranked on the desire for better user experience. So 92% of those members who participate in our research want an easy-to-use digital platform. 77% value having a diverse range of investment options. And then 63% want to access comprehensive educational resources. So they want equally both financial incentives and also support. And ultimately, what they're telling us is that simplicity matters too. And now when we think about this day and age, we're all in the digital era. Simplicity and ease is now interchangeable with digital. So digital access is now table stakes everywhere. We are. And members just expect that to be able to transact seamlessly through web and mobile. But that expectation goes beyond just being able to do transaction. And what we have discovered is that what truly adds value now is guidance, that insight to help plan members understand their plan, how to optimize benefits like employer matching, and then ultimately taking the right actions towards improving their retirement readiness. So that's why we continue to invest really heavily to end-to-end experiences in digital tools, like planning resources, actionable insights. That helps a member get closer to the goals and not just closer to an account. It's ultimately the destination.

[00:06:35] Manal Ali: Yeah, the figures are undeniable. And even as someone that tried to resist with everything being digital, it's hard to not see how much easier digital platforms make all of the solutions that you have available. So one of the most striking findings in the report challenges conventional wisdom about financial education. You discovered that confidence matters more than knowledge when it comes to retirement savings. How does someone's belief in their financial knowledge matter more? Can we go through that?

[00:07:07] Hilda Tang: Yeah, it's really interesting in terms of the balance between knowledge and confidence and intuitively. Many people like myself would assume that the more financial knowledge you have, the better outcome when it comes to savings. But let's unpack that because we see something different in our research. So let's talk about confidence first. So what is financial confidence? Simply put, it is the feeling of being grounded in current reality. So knowing where you stand in your savings currently, how much you need in the future at retirement, and what other goals you're working towards along the way. And then understanding that having a starting point is to access other information and expert guidance. So then you can evaluate your options, understand the trade-offs, and then feeling ready to take action to achieve those goals. Now, most importantly, we can't discount that there is a lot of emotions with money. It is also including that mindset of not having fear of judgment and then willing to seek for help and information. So that's what financial confidence means. Now, the next thing we dug into is financial literacy. So having a lot of knowledge. So financial knowledge is as simply as what are the mechanics behind investing and savings? And do you have the information you need to make those decisions? So it's essential as having fact-based knowledge about money and how investment products work, like RRSP, TFSA, basic investing concepts such as risk and return trade-off. And it also means getting information from reliable and biased resources. Especially as we all know these days that there's a proliferation of information in social media and online. So for Canadians, it goes a long way to have both financial literacy and then confidence to act on that knowledge.

[00:08:53] Manal Ali: And can you walk us a little bit through what the data actually shows?

[00:08:58] Hilda Tang: Yeah, so from the data, what we've seen is that financial literacy isn't, that is not important. It absolutely is. But what we saw, the data is very nuanced. is when you compare it with confidence, we see stronger outcomes. So for people with high confidence, they accumulate 64% more than those with lower confidence. However, financial literacy alone also improves savings, but by only 12%. So that's why it's so important when we look at confidence and financial literacy together. Now, what's even more striking is that for those Canadians who are financially literate. Those who are both high confidence and high financial literacy save almost four times their annual income. However, when we look at those with high literacy but lower confidence, they only save two times their income. So that's a pretty big gap, an 86% gap, when we look at the facts. And then I will also use myself as an example. Working in financial services, I tend to have higher financial literacy. But sometimes knowing a lot actually makes me more cautious. Because as I mentioned earlier, managing money can be very emotional. And even with strong knowledge, the hesitation could creep in. Because I know all the downsides and also upsides of everything. So it's a good reminder that knowledge alone doesn't guarantee action. It's the confidence that enables people to apply what they know and move forward. So that's how we've seen financial literacy and then confidence playing a key role. Another insight I want to call out to you is not just the gap between knowledge and confidence. There's also a gap between perception and reality too. So what we saw in our data is that members believe they had about 159,000 on average saved. But when we looked closer at their account data, they actually only have 136,000 on average, right? So that's about a $23,000 gap or 14% difference. And so one of the foundation in building confidence, as I mentioned earlier, is knowing where you stand in your current reality. If the starting point is already fuzzy, then even very strong knowledge sits on a very shaky foundation, right? So just in summary, financial confidence builds on literacy and helps people apply that knowledge to their own situation and goals. So confidence drives action. But knowledge alone can actually lead to paralysis.

[00:11:29] Manal Ali: Yeah, I found this in myself too. The more I knew, I felt I was becoming more risk averse. So that was a wonderful realization. So seeing that there is a confidence gap, how can employers help individuals sort of bridge this financial confidence gap between what they know and how they'll act upon those things?

[00:11:50] Hilda Tang: Yeah, so it's not easy, that gap. between knowledge and confidence. And I've seen it firsthand because I shadow a lot of our licensed financial services consultants, and we have a specialized set of experts who are retirement consultants.

[00:12:06] Manal Ali: That's very well positioned.

[00:12:08] Hilda Tang: Yeah, very well positioned. They spend a lot of their time to guide members from pre-retirement through life in retirement. And through interacting with the retirement consultants and the members, one thing that really struck me as very clear is that that confident investors tend to be the ones who have a plan. So at Sun Life, we part ourselves in offering a 360 plan advice program. And what this does, we helped individuals to build financial roadmaps towards retirement. We start by understanding their current situation. We project what retirement could look like based on their needs, and then generate strategies and actions to get there. The plan gives them very concrete next steps so that they know what I need to do now and what I might need to do, down the line. For example, it could be as simple as increasing monthly savings or opening a registered account for more tax efficiency. But here's the really the important part I found through my shadowing is that the real value is in the output of that plan. It is the process we go through together. That journey gives members more confidence because they get more clarity in their situation. And then there's a path to get there. And that creates a confidence to act. So we see very big differences too, when we look at times of market volatility, like the spike we experienced last year around Liberation Day when terrorists were announced. We have members who reach out to us in panic, are often the ones who don't have a plan, right? They're reacting to external events and feel unsure of how their portfolio ties back to their goals. Meanwhile, the members who do have a plan understand how short-term swings in the market fit into the long-term picture and how things could fluctuate. And they're more. confident in staying the course. So to bridge that gap, one of the things that we encourage and engage members to do is to build that plan. It is that journey and that process to gain confidence.

[00:14:03] Manal Ali: Well, I think, thank you for going into that because I think it's a very important connection you made in bridging the gap. So switching it up, let's talk about the gender wealth gap because your data reveals some pretty stark differences. What are we seeing in terms of retirement savings between men and women in workplace plans?

[00:14:22] Hilda Tang: Yeah. So when we look at gender wealth gap in the workplace retirement plans, the differences are hard to ignore. Earlier, I mentioned that gap between perception and reality. When we dig deeper into that by gender, we see that men overestimate their savings by 16%, while women also estimate, but less so, by 12%. Now, we can't say exactly why the difference exist, but it's shown. That there is some disconnect between how prepared people think they are for retirement versus their actual readiness. Now, beyond perception, the real savings gap is also significant. Because our data shows that women contribute about 21% less than men each year to their group retirement plans. By the time they retire, they're ending up with $60,000 less in savings. And so they are already at a lower starting point at retirement. Now, what's contributing this gap is not only the contribution I mentioned just now, but also other structural longstanding issues. For example, the historic wage gap that we are all aware of. We've come long ways, as we know. In 2024, women earned about $0.88 for every dollar men earned. So come long ways. That number used to be lower, right? And then also women are far more likely to take parental leave. And earnings for Canadian women tend to drop following childbirth. So there are many factors to it, and this just adds to it. And on top of that, too, while women are saving less, they also need their savings to last longer. Because we all know statistically that women tend to live longer than men on average. So it means that they need to fund more years of retirement with longer lifespan. And the longer lifespan, we all know that it leads to additional expenses related to healthcare and caretaking. So in short, women are having to fund longer retirements with fewer dollars and often more in financial strength.

[00:16:16] Manal Ali: And so I think it's important to kind of connect this confidence finding to the gender because why are we seeing this? And the data reveals some pretty significant differences. What are you seeing in terms of how confidence varies between men and women in your plans?

[00:16:33] Hilda Tang: Right, yeah. So earlier we talked about that overestimate. That really shows the confidence gap already. But when we dig a little deeper, what we also see a gap in is the actual financial literacy test as well. So what stood out is that men and women actually score almost the same on financial literacy. So the gap isn't really the issue regarding knowledge. So it's more about self-assessed confidence. And that's when the story changes. So women are far more likely to describe themselves as cautious, while men are more likely to say they felt confident. In some cases, overconfident, right? As we saw some of the gap between perception and reality. Now, women tend to openly acknowledge what they don't know. Now, this could actually be a real strength in many areas of life, being open-minded and looking for opportunities for improvement. However, when it comes to retirement savings, that caution can slow decision-making or create the inertia to act. Meanwhile, a bit of overconfidence in investing, which we see more among men, can lead to more action bias. And action is what drives better financial outcomes because that hesitation matters. For example, that hesitation leads to inertia. That inertia could mean leaving money sitting in an interest-only savings account instead of putting that savings to work in long-term investments where it has the potential to grow. Now, over time, when we add up those little delayed decisions, it could have material impact on outcomes. So even though men and women are roughly at the same level, the confident they feel in using that knowledge is where the gap shows up and where we see very differences in behaviours and results. Now, the really interesting insight that we discover, too, is that women with lower confidence are less likely to seek support from financial advisors because they often feel they don't have enough savings or because they are uncertain whether they'll receive the advice they can trust or clearly understand. So that's really interesting in terms of that attitude and belief.

[00:18:37] Manal Ali: Yeah, and I imagine because it's such a dichotomy where we see that the people, the women that need the most professional guidance, they're least likely to access it because of financial constraints, that the guidance could help. But that's a very challenging cycle to break, I feel. What intervention opportunities do you see?

[00:18:56] Hilda Tang: Right. Yeah, definitely hard cycle to break, but it's not impossible. And to break that cycle, it's important to remember that it isn't a knowledge problem, it's a confidence problem. So as I mentioned, women are cautious investors in general, aren't avoiding advisors out of arrogance that I know everything I can do on my own. They're often avoiding them because they're unsure whether they'll get the advice they trust or the advice they feel comfortable acting on. So breaking that cycle could start as something very small too. And could start with taking that first step to understand the current reality. How much you've saved, where is it invested, what types of accounts you hold. Now, recently I read this book called Atomic Habits by James Clare. And one idea really stuck with me is a two-minute rule. Make that first step so easy, you can't say no. It should take no more than two minutes to act on. Now in the book, he talks about someone who wanted to build an exercise habit. And the daily goal was simply is to just drive to the gym and be there for five minutes. And that's it. Five minutes, that's it. Now, if I were to translate that into financial confidence, the two-minute rule could look like this. Log in to the mobile app or the web portal and check your balance. That's it, stop there. No big decision, no need to decide whether I need to engage with an advisor or do a financial plan, no pressure. Just becoming familiar with your numbers. It's the same point I made earlier, having a starting point to understand where you stand.
 

[00:20:28] Manal Ali: Yeah, I love these bite-sized actionable moments that you're providing us with in with regards to financial planning. That's amazing.
 

[00:26:35] Hilda Tang: Yeah, it's like very little, right? So that first step could be very life-changing too, because once they take that first step, it makes it easier to take that next step and build the momentum. And then that's where our role comes in at Sun Life is members comes in, they talk that very big first step. is then we take them through options to look at simple tools, calculators, or even start a retirement planner that requires very few pieces of information. Or even as simple as, you know what, I now logged in enough. I understand what's happening. I want to book some time with a retirement consultant or a licensed financial services consultant who can guide me more. So the way I think about it is like scaffolding, right? So we create a scaffold for members. We made that first step low friction. And then help them build that confidence when they're beginning to take root. Then we can bring them in. We can engage them more so. And I think for women, it's especially important because of that gap we talked about. These steps that we help them take could drive more impact in general. Because this impact will have better outcomes for them in the long term.
 

[00:21:50] Manal Ali: Yeah, I'm just really loving all your tips. Because sometimes for a lot of people, I know that you even beginning can be so overwhelming. So that's really helpful. And so how can sponsors though distinguish between the two in terms of confidence and knowledge gaps when they're designing plan features and the education and which levers are going to sort of most meaningfully influence participation and sort of a sustained engagement?

[00:22:17] Hilda Tang: Yeah. So earlier we've talked a lot about making it simple and easy for members and working Canadians in general. I think that's same concept needs to translate for sponsors as well. We need to make it easy for them. So we want to make it straightforward. And what we boil it down to is a very powerful three-part framework. Simplify, automate, and incentivize. Simplify is making plan design simple, making user experience intuitive. And that is a great building block to build confidence for members. And what that means is very simple language, less jargon.,more choices for them to evaluate different options based on what they are in that life moment. And then also tools that would make it easy to reduce friction and help them to take that first step. So therefore, simplicity just helps build that confidence and drive action. The second part to this framework is automation. Because we all know sometimes we can't make decisions on our own. So someone makes a decision for us, makes our life so much easier. And we want some other people to make good decisions for us. So once members understand the basics, we can overcome that fatigue by helping with automation. For example, automated features such as auto enrollment, auto escalation can make saving effortless and more consistent. Now, in fact, what we saw is that almost 80% of members really value these automatic features because they translate to understanding their long-term savings habits. And then we take action for that and make it easy. The last part to the framework is incentivize. All know, as human beings, human nature, we love incentives. And employer matching is one of the most powerful motivators. But only when members clearly understand it. Amongst those who understand how their match works, we see 90% maximize it. So that's almost universal participation. Because there's money at the table for members. There's a clear benefit. So how do we clearly convey those benefits to members and then motivate them to act? So combining like plan design, accessible tools, professional guidance, sponsor can play a big role, a major role in supporting their members to build that confidence. And not only that, helping them to protect and also grow their financial future. Now, if I can take one moment and say, what is that one takeaway that I want to leave with plan sponsor? And it's this, you influence member outcomes far more than you may realize. The decisions you make in plan design, the way you communicate to members and the support structures that you create can fundamentally shift their behaviours. When members are encouraged to ask support, we proactively engage them through nudges to help them build confidence one little set at a time. Over time, that adds up and they can achieve far more than they thought it's possible.

[00:25:05] Manal Ali: Now, thank you so much for bringing that up. And I'm sure you saw yourself as well that in a 2025 HOOPS survey found that 59% of non-retired individuals believe that they won't be in a secure enough position to retire. So I feel like this is such an important conversation you've had today. And the survey showcases so many things that are important for Canadians to understand. And this research really raises difficult but necessary questions for plan sponsors, particularly around confidence, access to advice, and how plan features shape behaviour over time. So Hilda, thank you so, so much for walking us through the findings and actually explaining what the data suggests about where plan sponsors can intervene most effectively. And thank you to our listeners for joining us.

[00:25:51] Hilda Tang: Thank you, Manal, for having me. This has been great dialogue and thank you for the opportunity to share these insights with your audience.

[00:25:58] Manal Ali: Yes, perfect. And thank you again for joining us on BPM.