Banks using RRSP season to start savings conversations with Canadians

But bankers say they continue to be busy at this time of the year, and insist Canadians are focusing on saving money across a variety of available investment products despite dire prognostications about a lack of retirement preparedness.

“It’s a big period of business,” says Linda MacKay, senior vice-president of retail savings and investing at Toronto-Dominion Bank. The traditional sales season in the first couple of months of the year is “material for us, February in particular,” she said.

Recent statistics on saving suggest the banks are facing an uphill battle with many Canadians.

Almost half of working-age people say debt repayments are keeping them from saving enough for a comfortable retirement, while their income is not keeping pace with the cost of living, according to a report this month from HSBC.

The report, based on a cross-Canada survey, revealed 37% of people, including almost two in five who are 45 and older, aren’t and don’t intend to start saving for retirement. Perhaps even more disconcerting is HSBC’s revelation that many working-aged people have stopped or reduced saving for retirement because of the impact on their savings of the global economic downturn.

Given these trends, along with newer wealth-building options like tax-free savings accounts available year-round, banks are de-emphasizing the need to make a lump sum investment to an RRSP in the first two months of the year.

Instead, they are using the traditional RRSP season, and the months surrounding it, to encourage customers to come in and speak about all aspects of financial planning and management, including reducing the cost of debt to gain more money for savings and investments down the road.

At Royal Bank of Canada, for example, RRSP season is now referred to as “the winter investment season,” and extends all the way from November through February.