Another RRSP season has ended, thank goodness. The first two months of the year are great for business, but there are irritants.

Each January and February, financial institutions and think tanks deluge us here at Investment Executive with polls, surveys, studies and briefs purporting to give us an accurate picture of how well prepared financially we are for retirement, the roadblocks on the way to those golden years and how best to get there. This year has been no different. Over the past month alone, I found at least 12 RRSP surveys or studies from major financial services institutions in my inbox.

It would be easy to brush off the surveys as simply part of the RRSP marketing machines of the institutions sponsoring them. The fact that most are published close to the RRSP deadline each year is no mere coincidence. Despite their marketing purpose, however, many surveys tell us something useful about Canadians and retirement. Financial advi-sors should sift through them carefully for nuggets of relevant information.

The picture you get from a bird’s-eye view of the findings is often murky at best. This is not a huge surprise, given Canadians’ own confusion — and, maybe, unrealistic expectations — about their retirement goals and how to achieve them. Here’s what I mean.

A survey of almost 1,500 Canadian adults found a growing proportion are not confident they’ll have enough money for retirement. Fifty-three per cent of respondents with established financial goals said they feel they are “somewhat short” or “nowhere close” to where they think they should be to ensure a comfortable retirement, up from 36% in 2007.

In another survey, 60% of Canadians with RRSPs said they are not confident their plans will provide sufficient retirement income.

Still another poll found many Canadians simply have no clue about how much they will need.

But, according to yet another survey published a few days later, 73% of Canadian investors say the age at which they plan to retire has not changed despite the volatile market conditions of the past two years. Forty nine per cent of respondents say they intend to retire at age 65.

Take these results together, and you get more questions than answers. On one hand, many Canadians say they haven’t saved enough for retirement — with a sizable chunk not knowing how much they need; on the other hand, almost half are determined to retire at or before age 65. This inconsistency raises obvious questions about the gulf between retirement expectations and the resources needed to get there.

Occasionally, a survey reveals information that is of direct benefit to advisors and how they approach potential clients. One released this year found that the participation rate of young people in RRSPs was particularly strong. It compared contribution rates among different age groups and found that in most cases, Canadians aged 25 to 35 have a higher propensity to contribute to their RRSPs than Canadians aged 45 to 65. Mind you, the actual numbers of RRSP investors in the younger group is only a fraction of the number of the older RRSP investors.

Economists suggest the reason for the greater propensity to contribute is the concern of younger Canadians about the sustainability of government and private pension plans. It’s likely this is the result of the recession, which has pummelled company pensions. Many in this younger group apparently believe that they will have to rely on themselves alone for retirement income.

So, there is value to be had in the avalanche at RRSP time, even though the tendency might be to chuck the surveys into the recycling bin unread. You just have to dig a bit for it.

Tracy LeMay, Editor