2020 IG Financial Confidence Index: Canadians Continue to Persevere Through Challenging Year

• Despite impact of COVID-19, Index rose four points versus 2019
• Millennials and Indigenous communities struggling in current environment
• Seniors +10 compared to national average

WINNIPEG, MB, Oct. 30, 2020 /CNW/ - Today IG Wealth Management released the 2020 edition of its annual IG Financial Confidence Index ("the Index"), in partnership with Ipsos Canada. The Index tracks and reports on Canadians' overall financial confidence through six survey questions, which account for short-term and long-term financial considerations.

The 2020 edition confirms that Canadians coast-to-coast are rising to the occasion and showing significant strength and confidence when it comes to their personal finances during one of the most challenging years in recent memory.  The Index remains unchanged (at 60) from the mid-year update conducted in May and is actually up four points from the 2019 edition.  Further, confidence levels are up or remained consistent across all regions versus the previous year.

"It's encouraging to see that the year-end edition of our Index is consistent with what we found in our mid-year results," said Damon Murchison, President & CEO, IG Wealth Management.  "Canadians are showing great resilience, strength and judgement during what's been a year like no other.  This is particularly true among Seniors who, despite being more at risk from a health perspective, scored 10 points above the national average." 

According to Ipsos, the impressive Seniors' score may be attributed to the fact that they reported being less financially impacted by COVID than the general population and are also more likely to make use of a financial professional's services and to regularly review their financial accounts.

More generally, there were several areas where Canadians reported feeling increased levels of confidence versus the previous year.  These included:

• their ability to pay off their credit card debt every month (+6 percentage points versus 2019);
• having money left over at the end of the month (+6);
• concern that their finances control their life (-10); and
• frustration that they will never have the things they want (-7).

Mr. Murchison noted that, while the 2020 results may seem counterintuitive with everything that's happened this year, they could be attributable to the fact that Canadians have sharpened their focus on their personal finances to help ensure they're best positioned to navigate a challenging environment.  "We're all a little more aware of our finances, what's happening in the markets and, of course, the health and safety of family and friends."

Young Canadians Feeling the Pressure

According to the latest Index, younger Canadians (ages 18-34) do not feel quite as confident as other cohorts in a number of areas.  Since the mid-year update, Millennials are:

• more likely to have lost their jobs (+4 percentage points versus May 2020);
• less likely to feel they have made good financial decisions (-17); and
• not as confident about being prepared and on track to meet their financial goals (-13).

"There's no question that younger Canadians have been disproportionately affected by the economic impact of COVID," observed Mr. Murchison.  "For many this is the first major societal shock they've had to deal with as adults and it doesn't help that so many have had their livelihoods impacted directly by the health crisis." 

Mr. Murchison also noted that Canada's Indigenous communities have struggled in the current environment as well, scoring nine points below the national average on the Index.  "We know that there's so much more that can be done to help our Indigenous peoples become more financially confident.  We will be renewing our efforts to do our part and will be announcing more about this new program shortly."

For Canadians who may be feeling vulnerable in the current environment the Index did find that those who reported working with a financial advisor on their financial plan had an Index score 13 points higher than the national average. 

"A financial plan is a blueprint for both your short- and long-term aspirations.  When done properly, it can empower you by helping you budget more effectively, invest strategically, and plan for the unexpected.  IG Wealth Management is committed to improving the financial confidence of all Canadians and that's why we place such a significant focus on the financial planning process," concluded Mr. Murchison.

The IG Financial Confidence Index is part of IG Wealth Management's community program, IG Empower Your Tomorrow, launched in 2018. The program is dedicated to building the financial confidence of Canadians, especially those that need it most including: Indigenous Peoples, Newcomers, Seniors and Youth. Working with community partners and charities along with employees and clients, IG Wealth Management develops and executes seminars and workshops focused on increasing the financial confidence of these key groups, including the award-winning Money & Youth program which for more than 20 years has been helping high school students, teachers and parents with financial literacy.

Visit IG Empower Your Tomorrow to learn more about the various initiatives IG Wealth Management currently supports.

About IG Wealth Management

Founded in 1926, IG Wealth Management is a national leader in delivering personalized financial solutions to Canadians through a network of Consultants located across Canada. In addition to an exclusive family of mutual funds and other investment vehicles, IG offers a wide range of other financial services. IG Wealth Management has over $97 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2020 and is a member of the IGM Financial Inc. (TSX: IGM) group of companies. IGM Financial is one of Canada's leading diversified wealth and asset management companies with approximately $196 billion in total assets under management as of September 30, 2020.

About the IG Financial Confidence Index

The 2020 results presented in this summary report are from an Ipsos survey conducted from September 21 to September 28, 2020.  A total sample of 2,602 respondents from across Canada participated in each survey. Weighting was applied to the total sample by age, gender, region and education level to ensure that the composition of the final sample is representative of Canada's adult population according to the latest census data from Statistics Canada. Since the online portion of the sample is not considered to be probabilistic, Ipsos cannot apply a margin of error to this survey. The precision of non-probabilistic Ipsos surveys is measured using a credibility interval. The credibility interval for a survey of 2,602 respondents is ±2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population.

SOURCE IG Wealth Management

For further information: Media Contact: Nini Krishnappa, IGM Financial, 647-828-2553, [email protected]