Parents and Their Adult Children Need to Talk: Survey

Many Millennials and younger Generation Xers will soon be helping to support their aging parents.

Some of those people have only a vague idea of what their parents’ finances are like.

Analysts at the AgeUp team generated data on the knowledge gap in January, when they conducted a survey of 1,335 U.S. adults ages 25 through 44.

About 70% of the survey participants said they knew something about their parents’ mortgage, and 80% said they knew something about their parents’ general household expenses.

(Related: New Annuity Starts Lifetime Income Stream at Age 91 or Later)

But a high percentage of the participants admitted that they knew nothing at all about key elements of their parents finances.

Here are the “know nothing” percentages for five of those elements:

• 401(k) plan savings: 29%
• Credit card debt: 30%
• Social Security benefits: 32%
• Pension plans: 33%
• Investments their parents were holding outside of 401(l) plans: 33%

AgeUp is a deferred income annuity that’s designed to protect people against extreme longevity risk.

Adult children can buy the AgeUp annuity to protect their parents against the risk of outliving assets. The adult children can buy the annuities by paying as little as $25 per month. The contracts start paying benefits when the annuitants are at least 91.

Haven Life Insurance Agency, an arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), developed the AgeUp contract.

The AgeUp team says in an announcement of the survey findings that the results show how a lack of communication is affecting young adults’ efforts to plan for providing financial support for their parents.

The team is using the survey results to draw attention to the role the AgeUp contract can play in helping Millennials and GenXers prepare to support their parents.

— Read Millennial Investors Are Ready to Talk, on ThinkAdvisor.

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