October 11, 2011

Most Canadians depend on public pensions – Old Age Security, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan and Guaranteed Income Supplement – to provide for their basic needs in retirement.  Unfortunately, public pensions currently barely bring most older Canadians up to the poverty level.  A large proportion (over a third) of seniors have no significant additional retirement income, from workplace pensions or RRSPs and other savings. As employers cut back on workplace pension

Many Canadians invest their retirement and other savings in mutual funds, frequently on the advice of “financial advisors”/mutual fund salespersons.   Remarkably, a lot of these Canadians don’t know how much they are paying in fees, and even more important, how big a bite even seemingly small annual fees can take out of their savings.  Canadian mutual funds charge the highest fees of any advanced country. Over the 30 or more