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LIMRA: Concern Over Financing Retirement Remains High

Practice Management

Being able to afford a comfortable retirement is Americans’ biggest financial concern, according to a recent report from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

LIMRA reports that 53% of the 50.5 million retirees in the United States retired earlier than they had planned to, and not all did so voluntarily. LIMRA adds that the number of retirees will grow 40% by 2035.

According to the report, the way Americans prepare for retirement is changing as well. Nearly 75% of current retirees now rely on Social Security and pensions as their primary sources of income, LIMRA says.
 
And they are not feeling good about it. LIMRA found that 60% of retirees are worried about their Social Security benefits being cut, and almost 50% are concerned about whether they will be able to cover health care expenses that exceed what Medicare will cover. The lack of confidence extends into the pre-retiree population, less than half of which expects to rely on Social Security and pensions when they retire, LIMRA says.

So it doesn’t help that, according to another LIMRA study, just 42% of small businesses — those with 2-99 employees — offer retirement benefits.

But there is some hope, LIMRA says: overall, 40% of those businesses consider retirement benefits to be more important than they did three years ago. Among such employers, only 37% of those with 10 or fewer employees have that view, but 64% of those with 50-99 employees do. And that’s good news, since LIMRA also says that nearly 40% of employees have said that they save for retirement because their employers offer a plan.