Charting Retirement is a weekly snapshot of retirement-related data.
Assume a retiree accumulates all her Canada Pension Plan pension cheques with interest at 4 per cent a year. If she starts her CPP pension at 65, she will be further ahead than if she starts it at 70, but only if she dies before 82. The probability of her dying before 82, however, is just 18 per cent – it would be 22 per cent if she were a man. This suggests that four times in five, retirees are better off waiting until 70 to start CPP. That said, they need to have other sources of income before they reach 70.
Frederick Vettese is former chief actuary of Morneau Shepell (now Telus Health) and author of Retirement Income for Life.