How Canadian seniors make decision about insolvency?

This paper analyzes the growing insolvency phenomenon among Canadian seniors. It aims at situating the rise of insolvencies among seniors in the context of the demographic transition to understand the cause of their indebtedness. Furthermore, it feeds the scientific voice in the current debate to explain the rise of insolvencies among seniors. Our study is based on data of 1,285,000 insolvent debtors collected by the Canadian Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) from 2008 to 2018. We observed that the rise in the share of insolvencies filed by seniors is consistent with the progression of their share in the total population. Therefore, the relative increase observe in seniors' insolvencies is attributable to their growing share in the total population, and not necessarily to an increase in seniors' insolvencies. Given the aging of the Canadian population and its impact on the labour market, policy makers should adjust the insolvency system to be more responsive to seniors’ needs and align with other public policies.