Bankers Life: Americans Need Advice About Advice
February 8, 2011 by NU ONLINE NEWS SERVICE
Many middle-income U.S. residents are unaware of how retirement planning really works.Retirement analysts at an arm of Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Chicago, a unit of CNO Financial Group Inc., Carmel, Ind. (NYSE:CNO), make that argument in a commentary based on results from an August 2010 survey of 502 U.S. residents ages 55 to 75 with annual household incomes of $25,000 to $75,000.
The researchers found that 63% of the survey participants who said they were doing the planning on their own were devoting less than 1 hour per month to retirement planning, and that 36% reported spending no time on planning in a typical month.
Many of the participants said they did not know what level of assets they would need to get help from a professional, and about half of the participants who tried to estimate the minimum amount required thought an investor would need at least $200,000 in assets to interest a professional.
The researchers say they surveyed 10 national financial services companies and found that all had a retirement planning asset minimum of $2,500 or less.
Many middle-income U.S. residents are unaware of how retirement planning really works.Retirement analysts at an arm of Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Chicago, a unit of CNO Financial Group Inc., Carmel, Ind. (NYSE:CNO), make that argument in a commentary based on results from an August 2010 survey of 502 U.S. residents ages 55 to 75 with annual household incomes of $25,000 to $75,000.
The researchers found that 63% of the survey participants who said they were doing the planning on their own were devoting less than 1 hour per month to retirement planning, and that 36% reported spending no time on planning in a typical month.
Many of the participants said they did not know what level of assets they would need to get help from a professional, and about half of the participants who tried to estimate the minimum amount required thought an investor would need at least $200,000 in assets to interest a professional.
The researchers say they surveyed 10 national financial services companies and found that all had a retirement planning asset minimum of $2,500 or less.
