Over half of advisers believe the retirement advice industry lacks innovation, new research from Canada Life has revealed.
In a survey of 206 advisers, 52% say the industry has fallen short when it comes to innovation and new solutions, although only 56% of advisers feel comfortable exploring and offering clients new products.
Despite this, the research showed that 93% of advisers are confident they can deliver the flexibility into retirement that their clients desire.
While 41% of advisers say clients have changed their long-term financial needs in the past 12 months, more than double that amount (83%) believe they are one step ahead of their clients all or most of the time.
Sean Christian, managing director, wealth management division at Canada Life, said: “The impact of the past year will continue to drive a need for greater flexibility to ensure advisers meet the evolving needs of their clients.
“The industry needs to support advisers and their clients as needs and perspectives on retirement continue to change.”
According to Canada Life, nearly two thirds (63%) of advisers believe they have all the tools and products required to meet their clients’ needs.
Christian added: “The ability of the industry and advisers to work together in developing innovative solutions and advice is what will enable us to collectively deliver clients’ long-term financial plans.
“We’ve continued to develop our own retirement solution to respond to the challenges of providing clients with flexibility and certainty in any combination with the ability to de-risk through retirement journeys.”
Canada Life has launched the What If? campaign designed to highlight the opportunity for clients to take control of their retirement and how factors such as lifestyle, family, flexibility and certainty all have a role to play in decision making.
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