Data & Research May 25, 2007

Advisers Not as Valued as Family, Friends for Financial Advice

Workers are twice as likely to look to personal research or the advice of family and friends as they are to rely on the services of a financial adviser with help in retirement planning.
Reported by
About 40% of workers make their own investment and retirement decisions based on personal research or advice from their family and friends, double the 20% who say they rely on financial advisers for advice. A mere 3% of workers look to their employers for investment and retirement guidance, according to a personal finance poll of about 2,300 adults by the Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive.
Nearly two-thirds of employees (66%) say that their employers play a minor role or no role in their retirement preparations, compared with just 12% who say their employer plays a major role.
Respondents who earn more are more likely to say their employer played a major or important role in their retirement preparations, but even among respondents who earn more than $75,000, 59% report that their employer played a minor/no role. For those who make made less than 35,000, 80% said their employer played a minor/major role in their retirement planning.
Education Correlation
College graduates are more likely to land jobs with more likely to land jobs that offer a greater variety of financial planning. Thirty-three percent of employed respondents who are college graduates saying their employer offers a generous company match for 401(k) contributions, while only 16% of high school graduates say the same thing.
According to the survey, 69% of those college graduates say their employer encourages financial planning or retirement preparation, compared to 45% of those with a high school diploma.
College grads also say that their employer invites professionals to provide financial or retirement-planning workshops, where only 8% of those with a high school education or less have this same opportunity.

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