Canadian pension funds are preparing for a new retirement

Over the past year, I’ve worked with board members and senior leaders from Canada’s largest pension funds, including OMERS, Alberta’s public sector plans and a major Ontario university. Each asked me to address the same pressing question: What does retirement look like when people live past their 90^th birthday, and no longer follow the old path of learn, work, retire?

A quiet but significant shift is underway. Pension funds are beginning to reframe retirement not as a financial endpoint, but a personal transition that calls for new types of guidance, flexibility and purpose. It’s time for financial advisors and institutions to take notice.

At a recent gathering of four of Alberta’s largest public pension funds, we utilized the Stanford Center on Longevity’s New Map of Life. It reframes longevity as a design challenge. Rather than seeing it as a burden, we treated it as an opportunity to rethink how retirement is structured.

The session surfaced three questions:

• How do we support midlife transitions, not just exits from the workforce?
• What new role models are needed for retiring well in 2025 and beyond?
• Can we move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions to create phased, personalized pathways?

Across Canada, pension leaders are taking action. They’re piloting new programs, redesigning communications and aligning strategies with the reality of longer, more dynamic life journeys.

There’s plenty of demand. One Ontario university recently launched a retirement pilot focused on health, identity and life transitions. A webinar drew nearly 250 participants. And a pair of follow-up holistic retirement planning workshops were overbooked quickly.

Although still in its early stages, the pilot demonstrates that there is a strong demand for holistic, relational retirement support that extends far beyond investment products and financial calculators.

OMERS: A scalable model for the future

While some institutions are still in the pilot phase, OMERS is actively scaling retirement innovation. With over 644,000 members, it is one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans, serving municipal and broader public sector employees. It has embedded longevity into its member experience, making it a blueprint for transformation.

It has implemented several forward-looking initiatives:

• Its Retire Ready Impact Report found that while 79% of Ontarians are thinking about retirement, only 40% have a plan. Confidence is especially low among women. The report identifies four key pillars of readiness: financial, physical, mental and social.
• The Retirement Income Sources Hub is a digital tool that helps members navigate CPP and OAS decisions, and understand the value of guaranteed income. It’s a timely response to one of the biggest concerns among Canadians: outliving their savings.
• Preparing for Your 100-Year Life workshops introduced members to insights on longevity and explored the non-financial aspects of retirement, including identity, purpose and overall well-being. They also provided practical planning tools to help members navigate this life stage.
• OMERS’ Pension Blueprint Podcast dedicated its second season to exploring longevity, holistic planning and the evolving nature of retirement in today’s multi-stage life.
• Next Steps in the Evolution is a holistic retirement planning hub and immersive series of sessions designed with members to support life transitions that expand on pension education.

OMERS is continuing to pilot so it can reimagine retirement at scale, backed by research, leadership support and a strong member mandate.

The advisor opportunity

Advisors who find ways to engage on longevity and the evolution of retirement stand to gain a competitive advantage. The pension funds I’m working with represent the leading edge of a shift in thinking that resonates with a lot of Canadians.

This is a conversation they want to have with the financial services professionals they work with. The dialogue revolves around three themes

1. Longevity is strategic. It’s not just about how long clients live. It’s about how they live, work and evolve over decades of post-career life.
2. Retirement is a transition, not a destination. Clients need help designing this next chapter, not simply withdrawing from work.
3. Holistic planning is the next frontier. Purpose, identity and social connection are joining financial readiness as core retirement concerns. Advisors who meet these needs will deepen relationships and trust.

From emerging pilots in higher education to OMERS’ bold system-wide redesign, it’s clear that the future of retirement is relational, flexible and designed for longer lives.

Financial advisors who recognize this and approach it with curiosity, empathy and strategy will help shape the future of retirement, rather than just react to it.