Retirement and savings issues are at the heart of intergenerational economic issues linked to demographic changes.
Personal finance management is currently carried out in a particularly uncertain economic environment in which financial returns have been historically low. Everything suggests that this environment will continue for the next few years. Personal savings and investment decisions are also taken in a more complex regulatory framework than before. Retirement funds provide less and less of the fixed benefits at retirement and operate more on the basis of fixed contributions and variable benefits. The complementarity and attractiveness of retirement savings vehicles such as RRSPs, TFSAs, RESPs and the new VRSPs are often misunderstood by savers, which leads to suboptimal savings behaviours, especially when taking into account taxation and income support programs.
The chair intends to promote this pole of expertise, by tackling several important issues from a behavioural perspective, the aim being to better understand in order to act better.
- The optimality of the year in which benefits from the QPP begin, knowing that more than 50% of Quebecers apply for their retirement pension at age 60;
- The value and role of financial advice;
- Disbursement products at retirement to analyze the behaviour of households in relation to annuities, long-term care insurance and reverse mortgages;
- The comparison between the choice of savings portfolio of Quebec and Ontario taxpayers according to their socio-demographic characteristics and their level of income;
- Evaluating interventions that can help households improve their financial literacy and make better savings and retirement decisions. This work, carried out jointly with the Retirement and Savings Institute at HEC Montréal, will allow us to study interventions aimed at improving the profitability of choices;
- Developing means to help individuals choose between different savings vehicles or make better disbursement decisions.