VP explains how Sun Life Essentials aims to tackle 'inertia' among Canadian workers
One small step for small employers, one giant leap for workplace savings. This is the rationale behind Sun Life’s recently launched Sun Life Essentials platform for small and medium sized employers (SMEs).
“We wanted to create a product that was accessible, easy to get into with an amazing price point. We tried to remove all the barriers that we thought exist when a sponsor may be thinking of a [savings] plan or an advisor is thinking about introducing a [savings] plan,” said Ted Singeris, vice president of client relationships and business development, group retirement services and head of Western Canada at Sun Life. “With technology we found a way to scale it, and we wanted to make it accessible to the employees of small and medium sized organizations.”
Singeris believes financial literacy and fear are the core obstacles associated with closing the savings gap. Given that employees spend most of their life in the workplace, recent data from Harris Poll Canada, commissioned by Sun Life found 76 per cent of working Canadians genuinely believe employers have a role to play in improving financial wellbeing and building financial security.
Additionally, more than 80 per cent of Canadian workers believe workplace savings plans and access to financial guidance should no longer be considered optional benefits, but standard components of employment. Moreover, almost half of working Canadians are employed by organizations with 300 employees or less. Yet, more than half of those workers have no workplace savings plan at all.
These findings encouraged Sun Life to launch Sun Life Essentials.
Singeris believes the employer-employee relationship carries a built-in credibility that makes the workplace a natural starting point for financial planning. He points to the colleague or HR manager who nudges a new hire to join a plan early in their career. While the advice often proves far more valuable than people realize at the time, all too many workers never get that nudge, noted Singeris.
"I think it's inertia, which is created from sometimes being overwhelmed through information," he said, noting Sun Life's own client data suggests that financial outcomes tend to be better than people fear, and that small, early steps, rather than sweeping overhauls, are what move the needle.
"A few small nudges can make a huge difference in both a person's wealth outcomes, but also their mental health and their financial sense of being," he added. “The unknown can be really tough for people.”
Singeris describes Essentials as a self-serve digital platform, but one backed by human support infrastructure. Sun Life is building separate digital dashboards for advisors and employers to manage their plans independently. Behind the scenes, small and mid-sized enterprise employees gain access to the same tools and support that larger organizations have long enjoyed, from contact centre access, retirement planning software, and both in-person and virtual advisory support.
Singeris identifies price and structural flexibility as Essentials' defining advantages. The competitive pricing is drawing attention, but the real differentiator is the absence of minimums and thresholds.
“That was a very definitive point for us internally. We wanted to remove excess barriers. We wanted this to be as frictionless for the employee, for the advisor and for the sponsor. We know small businesses need to focus on their core business and they don't have unlimited resources,” noted Singeris.
Singeris acknowledges that affordability is a real constraint for many Canadians and acknowledged Sun Life priced the product accordingly. The platform was also built as a digital-first, self-serve experience — a deliberate choice to let employees engage on their own terms.
According to Singeris, Essentials was built to bolt onto whatever group benefits arrangement a small business already has, regardless of which carrier provides it. Notably, employers with an existing benefits plan through a competitor can still layer Essentials on top, and those already in the Sun Life ecosystem have additional options worth exploring.
But how employees use the plan and how plan sponsors set up the plan is entirely their call, Singeris emphasized. While Sun Life encourages retirement planning, the product is built to accommodate other priorities too, like emergency savings, a home purchase, or whatever financial goal makes sense at a given stage of life. For instance, a first home savings account, can be opened directly through the platform with a single click.
According to Singeris, the setup process also mirrors that flexibility, noting that once an employer signs on, employees aren't compelled to participate but can register through the app and begin contributing immediately if they choose. The design reflects an awareness that affordability pressures vary widely, and that giving workers control over timing and purpose is more likely to drive participation than forcing it, Singeris said.
The single most important step employers can take is to open a plan in the first place, Singeris emphasized, noting he believes Essentials fits that need. Beyond that, his message to employers is about culture rather than mechanics. While retirement feels distant to most workers, it arrives faster than people expect.
"A little bit of planning and a little bit of taking the right steps forward can have an amazing impact on the outcome for these members," he said. From his perspective, awareness and encouragement from employers carry significant weight.
“I want to do everything we can to put more cash in the pockets of members so come retirement, they have a healthier, bigger balance than they otherwise would have [without this],” said Singeris.
