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April 08, 2020 at 02:37 PM
MassMutual recently repeated a poll it first conducted in 2015, quizzing Americans near retirement on their basic knowledge of Social Security retirement benefits.
The best that can be said about the results of the new survey is that they were an improvement on the previous ones.
One third of near-retirees failed the basic knowledge quiz, while another 19% barely passed with a grade of D — in other words, 52% of Americans approaching retirement need to beef up their knowledge base.
Take ThinkAdvisor’s Quiz: How Well Do You Know Social Security?
On the other side of the spectrum, only 3% of respondents answered all 12 true/false statements correctly.
In MassMutual’s 2015 poll, only one person got all answers correct and 62% of those 50 and older failed. In 2018, 47% failed.
“Hats off to those who got perfect and passing scores, as that’s a promising signal that when it comes time to file for Social Security retirement benefits, they’ve got a good handle on the basic facts,” Michael Fanning, head of MassMutual U.S., said in a statement.
“Our job now is to hone in on those who didn’t do so well as they are the ones that could be leaving money on the table if they do not make the optimal filing decision for their personal needs, which could impact their retirement income stream for the rest of their life.”
PSB Research conducted an online poll consisting of 12 true/false statements from March 17 to March 30 among 1,500 Americans between 55 and 65 (raised from 50+ in earlier polls) who had not filed for Social Security retirement benefits.
