Manulife Wealth & Asset Management has appointed Fraser Wiswell (pictured) as head of Canada Retirement, placing him in charge of the insurer's group retirement business at a time when workplace plans are under growing pressure to improve member outcomes.
Effective immediately, Wiswell succeeds Brett Marchand, who was recently named president and CEO of Manulife Wealth.
In his new role, Wiswell will lead strategy, growth, and delivery of group retirement and retirement income solutions for plan sponsors and members across Canada.
Wiswell brings more than 15 years’ experience across retirement, wealth, and group benefits. He joined the company in 2010 and has held progressively senior roles across Global Retirement, Group Benefits, and Retail Wealth, including positions in product management, strategic alliances, and enterprise strategy and planning.
Most recently, he served as head of global retirement participant outcomes.
Commenting on his new position, Wiswell said he is honored to take on the role and build on Manulife’s group retirement franchise.
“We have an important responsibility to help Canadians save and retire with greater confidence, and I look forward to working with our teams and partners to keep building on that goal,” he said.
Manulife’s group retirement business is a core part of its wealth and asset management operations and supports nearly two million Canadians in preparing for and living in retirement. That business operates in a market where many workers remain underprepared.
Manulife’s 2025 Financial Resilience and Longevity Report found that half of Canadian workers feel behind schedule on their retirement savings, up from earlier readings in 2020.
Other Manulife research has shown that around 40% of Canadians are financially “unwell”, often reporting low investment knowledge and high money-related stress, with clear implications for retirement readiness and demand for workplace guidance. Manulife has responded with personalized engagement programs that provide non-product-specific education to plan members.
In Canada, that program now reaches almost one million members each quarter, and was expanded in 2024 to include non-customers.
Wiswell’s global participant-outcomes remit has included using data and behavioral insights to lift savings rates, advice usage, and satisfaction across millions of retirement participants under the Manulife and John Hancock brands.
Bringing that focus to Canada Retirement comes as competition in the group market remains intense. Sun Life, for example, describes itself as the market-share leader among Canadian group retirement savings record keepers, with proprietary data covering about 1.5 million members in more than 8,600 plans.
The appointment points to a continued shift toward outcome-based retirement strategies. Record keepers and insurers are under pressure from sponsors and regulators to demonstrate that plan design, defaults, decumulation options, and member communications are improving real-world retirement readiness, not just administration metrics.
Manulife has previously warned that many Canadians may need to plan for “40‑year retirements,” given rising life expectancy and changing work patterns.
Against that backdrop, the way providers structure default investment options, managed accounts, in‑plan retirement income and financial-wellness support is expected to remain a key competitive differentiator in Canada’s group retirement market.
