Four years on, Pension Awareness Day tests how seriously Canada takes retirement readiness
As Canada marks its fourth annual Pension Awareness Day on February 19, a familiar gap persists between the benefits pension plans offer and the attention members give them. Notably, an IG Wealth Management survey recently found that only 40 per cent of non-retirees have access to a workplace pension plan of any kind, and just one quarter of those who do know the basic details - including whether they hold a defined benefit or defined contribution plan.
For David Bartucci, head of pension plan operations and regulatory effectiveness at FSRA, the numbers reinforce the case for the awareness of the campaign itself.
“That research has been pretty consistent over time, at least from what I’ve seen," he said. "That's why we thought it was really important for people who have a pension to spend that time learning about it."
Meanwhile, ACPM’s CEO Korinne Collins sees the biggest barrier to pension engagement as a psychological one, particularly as retirement feels distant, and people are wired to focus on the immediate. She suggests the industry has invested in spreadsheets, calculators and projection tools, but argues those instruments remain too abstract to change behaviour. That’s why she emphasizes the missing ingredient is personalization.
“It needs to get more personal. We need a way to personalize pensions so that people can see themselves as that future retiree. And you don't want them to feel that they're limiting their choices, but that there are different options along the way. And just understanding that there could be a retirement impact, whether that’s on amounts, or ages and when one retires. There’s a lot of decisions and it’s hard to come up with that one answer, that one solution,” said Collins.
Now in its fourth year and originally launched by FSRA, Pension Awareness Day has built steady momentum across Ontario and the rest of the country, with a record number of organizations signaling interest in participating. For Bartucci and FSRA, the core message hasn't changed.
"Our key message and the main motivation is the same and that's for employers and sponsors to support their employees, to learn more about their pension plans, for more plan members to ask questions and make sure that they understand their plan," he said, emphasizing that those without a pension plan are encouraged to raise the topic with their employers. "For us, the success looks like more people talking about pensions and getting engaged on.”
He points to members in defined contribution plans, in particular, who face investment decisions that demand a basic understanding of how the plan works and where it fits within their broader retirement picture. After all, many plans offer contribution escalation or auto-enrollment at set intervals, features that go unused when members don't review their statements.
"For a lot of people, a pension plan is a big part or the main part of their goal and for others who have a pension plan, it's maybe a smaller part. But I think an important part of the overall retirement picture," he said, adding age is no barrier to engagement.
"We know that it's never too early to start contributing and learn more about your pension plan, and never too late, either, to learn about it and take advantage of this benefit that your employer is offering you," said Bartucci.
To that end, Bartucci stressed that governance and communication sit at the core of effective pension oversight. That belief drove regulators collectively to refresh the Capital Accumulation Plan (CAP) guideline and introduce a dedicated risk management guideline, initially in response to mounting concerns about cybersecurity and ESG.
Since then, the risk landscape has evolved rather than eased, he noted, underscoring cybersecurity remains a live issue for sponsors and administrators, while artificial intelligence is now creating new questions about how plans operate and how members receive information and advice.
Collins also acknowledged how cybersecurity readiness is a growing concern given the volume of confidential data pension systems hold, everything from personal details, financial figures and ages. Many in the sector have moved from asking whether an attack will happen to accepting it is a matter of when, she noted.
Additionally, AI carries its own risks - privacy of beneficiaries, accuracy of the outputs it generates, and the broader question of what guardrails boards need to impose on a technology that many trustees lack the technical background to fully evaluate.
For Bartucci, though, these changing headlines don’t alter the underlying task. Whatever the specific threat, plans need solid governance, a clear risk management framework, and documented evidence that they have identified, assessed, and mitigated key risks.
Collins argues that strong pension governance depends on deliberate preparation for shocks as well as clarity about the board’s role. She sees real value in scenario planning and tabletop exercises because they force trustees to practise how they would respond when an unexpected issue hits and an emergency meeting has to be pulled together quickly with the right expertise in the room.
Consequently, however, she underscored trustees constantly wrestle with the boundary between governance and management. External events - whether industry developments or political noise - can push boards toward operational detail, and the line is rarely clean.
While most trustees genuinely try to stay at the oversight level, she believes they’re also wary of overlooking something important. She believes the job is less about having all the answers and more about being willing to ask thoughtful, challenging questions when it matters.
“I think you do need that foundational learning, but you also need the experiential learning as well, and the more discussion-based learning. Maybe the lecture stuff works to get that foundation, but how do you apply it? It's applying that learning into a particular situation. That's the hard part to make that transition,” she said.
Ultimately, Bartucci underscored the importance for plan sponsors to have a risk management plan in place and to keep talking to members. He believes engagement shouldn’t be a one-off exercise but rather a continuous effort to ensure people understand how their plan works and can plan with confidence.
"Better information leads to better outcomes and that's really the purpose behind Pension Awareness Day," said Bartucci.
