Almost a third of millionaires nearing retirement have never
consulted a financial professional because they feel they can do a better job
on their own, according to a survey released Monday by Deloitte Center for
Financial Services. The survey found that while retirement confidence has
increased since 2012, more than half of respondents said they’re still not
feeling financially set. Naturally, those who have a formal retirement plan and
established savings are more confident, but 17 percent of those highly
confident investors didn’t have an advisor or even a retirement plan.
Sean Cunniff, investment management research leader for
Deloitte, pointed out that the survey didn’t study how prepared respondents
were, just how confident they felt. He told ThinkAdvisor on Monday that some of
those investors may have their head in the sand when it comes to their
retirements. Cunniff noted that people who had a professional advisor and who
had a plan also had the highest level of confidence in retirement.
Cunniff added that one of the most important things that
people can do to improve their retirement outcomes is to start saving “at an
early age, and that’s something that the industry might not do a lot of because
those people tend to not have a lot of assets.” That could be adding to
investors’ perception of workplace plans as the second most trusted source of
financial information, after a primary advisor. Cunniff attributed most of the
improvement in retirement confidence to improvement in the economy overall.
Despite efforts to make the financial services industry more
transparent since the financial crisis, trust is still a problem for
advisors and firms. One-third of respondents said they felt financial
professionals were highly trustworthy, and just 29 percent felt the same way
about financial institutions. However, those who work with an advisor were much
more likely to say they trusted him or her: 78 percent compared with 68 percent
in 2012.
One point that was raised to the research team as they
compiled the report was whose responsibility it really was to improve
retirement outcomes: the industry or the individual?
There are several good reasons for that, he explained.
First, a better prepared population is just better for society. Better-prepared
people have more assets to invest, too, so from a practical standpoint it’s in
financial services firms' best interest to work with investors to that end.
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