More than a third of Americans say they most trust financial advisers to better understand retirement issues, according to a new survey.
The LIMRA survey finds that “more than 4 in 10 consumers felt they were not well-informed about generating retirement income, investing retirement assets, and managing risks and expenses in retirement,” says Matthew Drinkwater, associate managing director of LIMRA retirement research. “The good news is people are willing to turn most often to financial planners/advisers to seek help when planning for retirement.”
The survey of 918 people who are either the primary financial decision-makers or share responsibility for making financial decisions found that those currently retired were more likely to say they would trust financial planners/advisers for help understanding investing retirement assets than for help generating retirement income or managing risks and expenses in retirement.
However younger consumers were more likely than older consumers to trust family, friends and coworkers to help them understand investing retirement assets. Respondents say they are also slightly more likely to trust multiple sources of information (i.e. employers, financial web sites and the company managing their employer-sponsored retirement plan).
Fewer consumers say they would seek advice about generating retirement income or managing risks and expenses in retirement.
“Many of today’s retirees and future retirees will not be able to depend on a pension or a retirement health plan,” Drinkwater says. “So it is particularly troubling to see that consumers are not as interested to learn how to generate retirement income or manage risks like, health care, which will be essential for financial security in retirement.”
Prior research finds that less than half of Americans plan for more than 20 years in retirement and few have planned for how they will pay for health care, long term care, inflation, rising taxes and the biggest risk many will face: outliving their assets.
The survey also finds that less than 35% of those surveyed felt they were saving enough to last throughout their retirement years. Even among those respondents with annual household incomes of $75,000 or more, less than half indicated that their saving levels were sufficient.
