New TD Survey Reveals Nearly Half of Canadians Polled Have Been Financially Impacted by the Pandemic - Yet Many Are Still Reluctant to Talk About or Seek Help For Their Personal Finances

TD Financial Literacy Month Survey Reveals:

• 46% of Canadians surveyed said their family's financial situation was negatively impacted by COVID-19.
• 34% are reluctant to talk about their finances.
• Only 31% state they will seek help from their financial institution.
• 24% would rather talk about politics than money.

TORONTO, Nov. 12, 2020 /CNW/ - In recognition of the 10-year anniversary of Financial Literacy Month in Canada, a recent Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) found that while nearly half (46%) of Canadians say COVID-19 has had a negative impact on their family's financial situation, talking about money remains a touchy subject.

Despite COVID's ongoing impact, a third (34%) of Canadians surveyed are uncomfortable talking about their finances, creating a real barrier to financial recovery or achieving their financial goals. Among those who say that they are uncomfortable talking about their personal finances, they attribute their motivations to good-old Canadian courtesy. The largest proportion of respondents indicated they don't think it's polite to talk about money (37%), don't want it to seem like they're bragging (13%), or don't want to be judged (18%).

However, there is also a sizeable proportion of respondents who say they aren't comfortable talking about finances because either their financial situation isn't great right now (28%), they are struggling and don't know who to turn to (12%), or they aren't confident managing their money and are embarrassed to talk about it (9%).

"We know that for many Canadians, talking about their financial situation can feel uncomfortable but asking for help when it comes to money is an incredibly important step towards financial health and confidence," says Dave Golen, Associate Vice President, Customer Strategy. "As a supporter of financial education in Canada, we're working to help remove the stigma often associated with having conversations about personal finances."

Canadians Would Rather…

The TD survey shows that Canadians like to keep their financial conversations close to home and are reluctant to discuss their finances with anyone outside their inner circles. Six in ten (58%) say they are willing to talk to family members about their financial situation, while only three in ten will talk to someone at their bank (31%) or friends (28%).

And while a third (33%) of survey respondents say they have no issues talking about money, there are a number of things that they would rather do or talk about before discussing their finances.

• 59% would rather go for a physical check-up with a doctor.
• 56% would rather clean their house top to bottom.
• 40% would rather discuss the weather.
• 24% would rather discuss politics.
• 8% would rather bridge the topic of religion.

The survey also showed that this hesitancy to talk about money both in-person and online translates into a reluctance to talk about finances even with a dedicated financial professional. Surprisingly, six in ten (59%) survey respondents say they are less scared of going to the doctor than meeting with their financial advisor, with 1 in 10 (13%) admitting they'd rather get a root canal, which highlights the lengths that some Canadians will go to in order to avoid talking about money.

Financial Education and Support at TD

"Seeking professional financial advice is critically important in both good times and bad," continues Golen, adding that "TD offers a range of in-person and self-serve resources to help customers navigate their financial needs, including a mix of digital, phone and in-branch interactions to assess individual situations and help customers achieve their financial goals."

For customers navigating the financial impacts of COVID-19, TD has launched TD Ready Advice. From personalized advice to everyday banking capabilities available via online tools, TD Ready Advice helps address the ongoing needs of customers' evolving financial situations, providing information on topics reflecting the challenges currently facing many Canadians, along with proactive outreach to help customers navigate their financial challenges and emerge from the pandemic environment, including assistance for those looking for investment guidance as they continue to save for the future.

In addition, TD provides a range of tools and programs aimed at helping Canadians live their lives with greater financial confidence:

• Through its global corporate citizenship platform, The TD Ready Commitment, TD funds a wide-range of educational organizations that work closely with individuals and communities to help raise financial literacy levels across North America.
• TD colleagues help deliver financial education programs in many communities, such as Money Matters, offered by ABC Life Literacy Canada and Your Money.
• TD MySpend is a mobile app that helps you track your purchases and transactions made from your personal TD Canadian dollar savings, chequing and credit card accounts and automatically groups them into categories, to help you understand how you spend your money.
• TD advisors are available at our over 1,100 TD branches across the country to help provide personalized financial assessments and help customers reach their financial goals.
• The TD Newsroom provides a range of informative articles about personal finances, budgeting and fraud prevention.
• Students can now use a Student Budget Calculator to help them forecast how much their school year will cost for their post-secondary education.
• Learn more about how we are supporting Financial Literacy in communities across Canada and the United States by visiting The TD Ready Commitment Financial Literacy page.
• Visit the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's site for tips and tools on budgeting and upcoming financial education sessions.

About the Study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between October 26-28, 2020, on behalf of TD Bank Group. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18 years and over was interviewed. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

About TD Bank Group
The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group ("TD" or the "Bank"). TD is the sixth largest bank in North America by branches and serves over 26 million customers in three key businesses operating in a number of locations in financial centres around the globe: Canadian Retail, including TD Canada Trust, TD Auto Finance Canada, TD Wealth (Canada), TD Direct Investing, and TD Insurance; U.S. Retail, including TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank®, TD Auto Finance U.S., TD Wealth (U.S.), and an investment in The Charles Schwab Corporation; and Wholesale Banking, including TD Securities. TD also ranks among the world's leading online financial services firms, with more than 14 million active online and mobile customers. TD had CDN$1.7 trillion in assets on July 31, 2020. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades under the symbol "TD" on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. 

SOURCE TD Bank Group

Media Contacts: National & B.C.: Alison Ford [email protected]; Ontario: Jen Wilson [email protected]; Québec: Ariane Richard [email protected]; Prairies: Ian McColl [email protected]