Most Canadians Fear Outliving Their Savings. We Have a Viable Solution

July 8, 2025 –  Most Canadians fear they will run out of money in retirement, and this fear is made worse by the shift to defined-contribution savings and by having accounts often scattered across multiple institutions. A national pension dashboard would greatly improve Canadians’ ability to plan for retirement, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute.

In “Roadmap for Retirement: The Case for a National Pension Dashboard,” Senior Fellow Kathryn Bush highlights how a shift away from defined benefit pensions has left many Canadians struggling to understand how their savings will translate into income during retirement. To help, she proposes a pension dashboard – a government or government-sanctioned online tool – that displays all of an individual’s retirement income sources in a single view, including government benefits, workplace pensions, and potentially personal savings.

“How can Canadians make optimal decisions if they don’t have a straightforward way to see how savings and entitlements translate into monthly income?” asks Bush, a member of the C.D. Howe Institute Pension Policy Council and former chair of the Association for Canadian Pension Management’s National Policy Committee. “We need a modern and accessible tool that gives them an accurate picture of their expected retirement income – without needing to be an expert.”

Current financial tools, like the Canadian Retirement Income Calculator, rely heavily on user-inputted data, while pension plans, RRSPs, TFSAs, and government benefits remain scattered across multiple institutions and platforms. The proposed dashboard would automatically pull relevant data from government and private sources, offering real-time projections and also helping users identify “lost” retirement accounts.

“Countries like Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands already have pension dashboards in place. It’s time for Canada to catch up,” urges Bush, a former leader of the Blakes Pension Benefits and Executive Compensation group. “By integrating public and private savings information, we can help Canadians make smarter, more confident decisions about when to retire and how to draw down their assets.”

The report emphasizes that such a dashboard can be developed using existing infrastructure and technologies, including AI, making the solution both cost-efficient and highly accessible to Canadians.

“A pension dashboard that is cost-effective, secure, and accessible could be life changing," concludes Bush. “Canadians need a clear roadmap for retirement – and the time to build it is now.” 

Read the Full Report

For more information, contact: Kathryn Bush, Senior Fellow, C.D. Howe Institute, former chair of the Association for Canadian Pension Management’s National Policy Committee, and a former leader of the Blakes Pension Benefits and Executive Compensation group; and Raquel Schneider, Communications Officer, C.D. Howe Institute, 647-805-3918, rschneider@cdhowe.org.

The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies. Widely considered to be Canada’s most influential think tank, the Institute is a trusted source of essential policy intelligence, distinguished by research that is nonpartisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review.

Want more insights like this? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest research and expert commentary.