What does it cost to age in Canada?

New online tool aims to help Canadians plan their financial future

Canada is on the verge of becoming “a super-aged nation, with 20% of the population aged 65 or older,” according to a recent news release from the National Institute on Ageing (NIA).

Whether it’s health needs, home care or costs associated with regional differences, preparing for the future means planning for the changes that ageing can bring. The Cost of Ageing (COA) Calculator is designed to help Canadians better understand how living costs may evolve over retirement - particularly in later life.

The COA Calculator estimates costs across key areas including housing and accommodation, health and care needs, transportation, food and daily living expenses. Crucially, it considers these essential categories across three retirement living standards: modest, moderate and comfortable.

“Too often, retirement planning focuses only on income at the point of retirement, without fully accounting for how costs change as we age,” said Dr. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Director of Financial Security Research at the NIA. “This tool helps bring evidence into those conversations, so Canadians can better plan for the realities of ageing—not just the for retirement.”

The NIA is Canada’s leading voice on ageing policy—convening stakeholders, conducting research, advancing policy solutions and practice innovations, sharing information and shifting attitudes.

CIRO’s Role

CIRO provided financial support to the NIA to develop the Calculator as part of our objective to foster financial education and empower underserved and vulnerable Canadian investors.

“We want to ensure that Canadians are supported in their investment journey and that vulnerable investors access tools and services to build wealth,” said Alexandra Williams, Senior Vice-President Strategy, Innovation and Stakeholder Protection, CIRO.

A Tool for Advisors and Clients

Advisors play a critical role in advising seniors on their finances and helping workers plan for retirement. The COA Calculator will provide an independent, evidence-based, authoritative, and easy-to-use tool that advisors can leverage to help their clients understand how costs evolve over retirement and how best to plan for them.

Whether searching for the cost of a comfortable retirement the impact of owning or renting one’s home, or what the costs of having 5, 20 or 40 hours of home care might mean for one's financial plan—the COA Calculator lets advisors and clients test variables in real-time and plan for what the impacts might be, bringing retirement costs into clearer view and grounding conversations in research-backed analytics based in and on Canadian experience.