American International Group Inc. has come up with a new way to get consumers thinking about income planning: getting them to focus on the idea of living to 100.
(Related: Americans Haven’t Thought Much About Life Insurance: Survey)
AIG has started Plan for 100, a new income planning awareness initiative.
The campaign includes a new website, at Planfor100.com, and a Plan for 100 Podcast series.
AIG kicked off the effort by releasing results from a Plan for 100 survey.
The Plan for 100 Survey
Michael Finke, a researcher at the American College of Financial Services, organized an online survey of 1,012 U.S. adults ages 40 through 74 who have at least $50,000 in retirement accounts.
One thing the survey team asked participants about was their ideas about the major benefits of living to 100.
Developing family relationships ranked first: 39% of the survey participants identified that as a benefit of living to 100.
About 32% cited getting to see new discoveries and the evolution of society as an important benefit.
Longevity Risks
The Plan for 100 survey team also asked participants to rate their top worries associated with living to 100.
Here are the percentages of participants who ranked the specified concerns as their top longevity-related worries:
- Health Problems: 35%.
- Becoming a Burden on Loved Ones: 27%.
- Running Out of Money: 25%.
Why Worry?
Todd Solash, president of individual retirement at AIG, said in a statement that retirement planning in the United States has yet to adequately adjust for an aging population, the decline in pension benefits, and longer lifespans.
“As a country, we have to face the fact that relying on savings alone will leave many at risk of running out of money during their golden years,” Solash said. “We must fundamentally change how we talk about retirement and replace what has been more of a singular focus on savings with a broader perspective that also includes protected lifetime income sources like annuities as part of an overall retirement plan.”
— Read Does Americans’ Keen Focus on Earning Hurt Saving?, on ThinkAdvisor.
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