Going Up in Flames – Impact of Being Exposed to Beliefs-Altering Residential Fires on Households’ Financial Holdings and Career Path

Canadian households face significant financial risks, including inadequate retirement savings and not being financially resilient to unexpected adverse events. An understanding of why households bear these risks and how their risk attitudes shift with economic shocks is thus critical. Although beliefs and risk perceptions are at the root of households’ financial decisions, the literature is silent on how first-hand experience of “life-changing” events affect individuals’ employment, financial holdings, and insurance policies. Therefore, this project seeks to answer the question: Do “beliefs-altering events”, defined as severe, one-off, and non-strictly financial losses, impact Canadian households’ financial holdings? Our partner, a major Canadian financial institution, will gain a deeper understanding of how households adjust their financial strategies after experiencing unexpected shocks. The quantification of how beliefs-altering events encourage individuals to reallocate financial assets (including insurance policies) or change career paths will allow our partner to better support affected clients.

Faculty Supervisor:

Andréanne Tremblay-Simard;Charles-Olivier Amédée-Manesme

Student:

Partner:

iA Financial Group

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Finance and Insurance

University:

Université Laval

Program: