Nearly all financial professionals maintain that they talk about physical health issues with their clients, but only 44% of clients recall those conversations, LIMRA reported Tuesday.
The final chapter of the firm’s 2025 Protected Lifetime Income & Planning study also found that 90% of financial professionals reported discussing cognitive decline, yet just 31% of clients said the topic had come up.
“These communications gaps around health care costs can undermine financial security,” Jean Chatzky, CEO of HerMoney, said in a statement.
“Even when FPs raise health care costs, the message isn’t resonating. While an FP may come armed with projections, models and risk tables, clear, simple language matters more to clients than charts and models.”
The study, in its seventh year, was conducted by Ipsos, which polled 3,502 consumers 45 to 75 years old and conducted a corollary survey of 500 financial professionals.
Shared Optimism, Persistent Concerns
Both financial professionals and consumers who work with one reported that they feel optimistic when assessing retirement readiness in terms of savings. On average, financial professionals believe that two-thirds of their clients will have adequate income to cover essential expenses in retirement, while 78% of those working with a financial professional are confident they will have enough income in retirement.
In comparison, just half of unadvised consumers said they feel the same.
Yet, the study found distinct differences in the two parties’ perceptions about retirement risks. When they listed their chief retirement concerns, 63% of consumers who work with a financial professional cited inflation, 62% health care costs and 45% outliving their savings.
For their part, financial professionals did not include inflation among their clients’ top concerns. Fifty-six percent listed outliving savings as the top issue, 51% market volatility and 50% health care.
The latest findings also revealed differences between consumers’ and financial professionals' expectations about Social Security. While consumers overall believe that half their retirement income will come from Social Security payments, only 34% of those who work with a financial professional said this would be the case.
Meanwhile, financial professionals estimated that Social Security will account for only 23% of their clients' retirement income, on average.
Consumers, however, are more pessimistic than financial professionals about the stability of Social Security. Fifty-two percent said they have less confidence than five years ago, while just 26% of financial professionals said they had lost confidence in the program over the same period.
Overestimate of Clients’ Annuities Knowledge
Twenty-eight percent of financial professionals in the study said their clients understand annuities and the role they play in a retirement plan very well, but only 14% of clients said they have a strong understanding of annuities.
LIMRA said that its earlier research showed a strong correlation between annuity knowledge and annuity ownership. Consumers who demonstrated a higher understanding of annuities were likelier than those who exhibited lower annuity knowledge to own an annuity,
“With the oldest Gen Xers now approaching retirement age, most of whom don’t have a pension, the industry needs to redouble their efforts to help consumers better understand the critical role annuities can play in filling that protected lifetime income gap left by disappearing pensions,” Bryan Hodgens, head of LIMRA Research, said in a statement.
The firm’s research, Hodgens said, shows that a majority of Gen Xers are interested in buying an annuity to build that lifetime income stream.
“Our latest sales data show annuity sales reaching a record high $345 billion for the first three quarters of 2025, a 4% sales increase year over year," he said.
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