Americans who have worked with an advisor are better off in a number of ways, according to a new survey.
According to Franklin Templeton's 2015 Retirement Income Strategies and Expectations (RISE) survey, Americans who work with a financial advisor are much more likely to have already begun saving for retirement compared with those who have never worked with an advisor (93% versus 54%).
Those who work with a financial advisor are also more likely to express confidence that their workplace retirement plan (77%) and personal investments (89%) will provide expected income in retirement compared with those who have never worked with an advisor (both 58%).
According to the survey, pre-retirees who have never worked with a financial advisor are more than twice as likely to answer “don't know” when asked what percentage of their current income they expect to live on in retirement compared with those who work with a financial advisor (49% versus 20%). In addition, pre-retirees who have never worked with a financial advisor are nearly twice as likely as those who work with an advisor to feel the most likely cause of a retirement delay would be because they believe they do not have enough money saved (42% versus 24%).
Apparently advisors are also helping their clients feel better about Social Security; nearly three-quarters (72%) of those who work with a financial advisor indicate they are confident that their Social Security benefits will provide expected income in retirement, much higher compared with those who have never worked with an advisor (58%).
For those who have never worked with a financial advisor, their top concern during retirement is running out of money (32%), while Americans who work with an advisor cite health and medical issues (37%) as their top concern.
The survey was conducted online among a sample of 2,002 adults comprising 1,001 men and 1,001 women 18 years of age or older between Jan. 8 and 22, 2015.
