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LIMRA: Many Pre-Retirees Sinking Toward Disaster (CORRECTED)

By staff Writer

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Fewer than half of pre-retirees have anything resembling adequate retirement savings.

LIMRA, Windsor, Conn., concludes in a new report on the 30 million U.S. workers ages 55 to 70 that many are “woefully unprepared.”

Only 49% of private-sector pre-retirees ages 55 to 64 participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, LIMRA says.

About 30% of pre-retirees believe they are “very prepared” for retirement, but 55% have less than $100,000 in household investable assets.

About one-third of pre-retirees said they have no plans to retire, and that may lead them to believe they have no need for substantial retirement savings. But LIMRA found in 2009 that 56% of actual retirees retired before they expected to do so, and 43% of those earlier-than-expected retirements were involuntary, LIMRA says.

About 91% of pre-retirees have lower-than-recommended asset-salary ratios, and the average pre-retiree retiring within the next 5 years who participated in an employer-sponsored savings plan has just 43% of the recommended level of savings, LIMRA says.

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CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, pre-retiree participation in employer-sponsored retirement plans was described incorrectly. The percentage is 49% for private-sector employees and about 78% for public-sector employees.