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May 03, 2012 at 07:34 AM
With Mother’s Day just around the corner, ING U.S. has released research on women and retirement planning. Judging from the results, perhaps the best present for Mom this year would be a better retirement plan.
Compiled by the ING Retirement Research Institute, the statistics show that women, particularly mothers, are woefully underprepared for retirement. Of those who have funds stashed in or out of employer-sponsored retirement plans, women had an average of $108,000 in total savings. By comparison, men had accumulated $149,000 on average. For women with children at home, the figure dropped to $88,000.
Further, the study found that more women (42 percent) than men (34 percent) contributed just 1 percent to 5 percent of their salary into their employer-sponsored plans. A quarter of women, 25 percent, had a formal investment plan for retirement versus 33 percent of men. More than half56 percentof women said they felt ill prepared financially for retirement, while 42 percent of men thought the same.
Delia deLisser, director of women’s marketing for ING U.S. Retirement, says this was the first major study undertaken by the company on women and retirement. The firm conducts seminars for its financial partners on how to get women more engaged in the retirement planning process.
She notes that women take retirement preparation and wealth planning very seriously in terms of providing for themselves and their families. “We counsel our advisors to sit and listen and allow women to talk about their situations, what’s important to them as far as their families and caring for them,” deLisser says. “Then they can provide solutions that address those specific needs that women have.”
