Mid-Year IG Financial Confidence Index: Canadians Show Resilience Despite Impact of COVID-19

WINNIPEG, MB, July 21 2020 /CNW/ - IG Wealth Management today released a mid-year update 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 mid-year Index shows that Canadians are demonstrating resilience despite the impact COVID-19 has had on the economy and financial markets, with the Index rising four points (from 56 to 60) since November 2019 and up one point from the inaugural Index result in November 2018.  Financial confidence levels rose in every region, demonstrating that Canadians are showing determination coast-to-coast. 

According to Ipsos Canada, multiple factors help explain these results.  The 2020 survey was conducted after the initial surge in anxiety and job losses generated by the crisis had abated, emergency government programs had been put in place and discussions about reopening the economy had started.  In short, Canadians had reasons to believe the worst of the crisis was behind them. 

Notably, Canadians reported feeling more optimistic and confident in key areas such as:

• being able to secure their financial future (+4 percentage points versus 2019);
• making good financial decisions (+5); and
• meeting their financial goals (+5).

Additionally, the study found that those who use a financial adviser are more likely to have a stronger sense of financial confidence than those who do not (an Index score of 66 versus 56).

"Canadians from coast-to-coast are displaying great spirit and guarded optimism despite everything that's happened during the first half of the year," said Jeff Carney, President & CEO, IG Wealth Management and IGM Financial.  "And, while it appears we may be emerging from the worst of the crisis, we don't know what the future holds and therefore shouldn't get complacent when it comes to safeguarding our health – or our personal finances."

Loss of Control & Young Canadians Impacted
While people generally remain confident when it comes to their finances, their sense of control over their personal financial situation has decreased significantly since the end of last year (23 per cent in 2020 versus 31 per cent in 2019).  Further, younger Canadians (18-34 years old) have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, with 27 per cent reporting that they have lost their job and 29 per cent having had their work hours cut.

"Taking control of your personal finances starts with having a better understanding of them," Mr. Carney continued.  "That's why we believe financial literacy is so important and why we continue to invest in IG Empower Your Tomorrow, which is dedicated to delivering financial confidence programs to Canadians that need it most."

Mr. Carney concluded by identifying steps Canadians can be taking to help insulate themselves and gain more control over their finances during these unique times.  This includes:

• working with a financial professional to create a detailed financial plan that maps out both short- and long-term financial goals;
• revisiting your investment portfolio to ensure it aligns with your risk tolerance and is well diversified;
• creating and sticking to a budget; and
• having a rainy day fund in place in the event of unexpected expenses or your job is impacted.

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 $89 billion in assets under management as of June 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 $165 billion in total assets under management as of June 30, 2020.

About the IG Financial Confidence Index
The 2020 results presented in this summary report are from an Ipsos survey conducted from May 15 to May 20, 2020.  A total sample of 2,605 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 2,605 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

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