More Americans Concerned About Retirement Income

 

Forty percent of Americans are concerned they will have to work during retirement to pay for living expenses.

 

 

According to Scottrade Inc.’s 2012 American Retirement Study, this is up from 34% that were concerned about having to work in retirement in 2011.

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

Forty-one percent of respondents are concerned that their investments won’t generate enough money to cover living expenses, up from 32% in 2011. Also, 38% are concerned they will outlive their retirement savings, up from 31% in 2011.

Americans’ general concern with having enough money for retirement hit a six-year high. More than half, at 57%, reported they are either extremely concerned or very concerned with this issue, up from 47% in 2011 and 56% in 2007.

As a result, the majority of Americans (56%) think generating income during retirement is more important today than it was a year ago. The reason, according to 67% of those respondents, is simply an expectation that the cost of living during retirement will be more expensive. This is leading 38% of all survey respondents to structure their portfolio to include income-generating investments.

While the majority of survey respondents over the age of 55 strongly agreed that given the opportunity to do it over, they would have started saving for retirement at a younger age, roughly a quarter said they would have become more educated about planning for retirement. Learning from their regret, more Americans (35%) expect to seek out information to learn more about retirement planning in 2012, compared to 28% in 2011. When looking at the responses by generations, the younger groups—Gen Y and Gen X—led this educational drive with 40% and 44%, respectively, stating they will seek out information in 2012.

The survey was commissioned by Scottrade and conducted online by Synovate and was fielded with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents from January 5 to 9, 2012.

 

Piedmont Independent Fiduciaries Hires VP

Piedmont Independent Fiduciaries (PIF) hired Sue Davis as vice president of client services and operations. 

In this capacity, Davis will supervise the investment and fiduciary responsibilities of 401(k) clients, including managing all service-related inquiries by plan sponsors and participants. In addition, Davis will function as the firm’s chief compliance officer and will be responsible for ensuring that the firm fulfills all regulatory requirements concerning recordkeeping, correspondence, disclosures, fees, marketing and advertising.

Davis was formerly chief operating officer at The Main Street Group and first vice president at Wachovia Securities (Wells Fargo Advisors’ predecessor firm.)

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.

«