Americans Equally Concerned About Volatility and Retirement Goals

Men are more concerned about short-term volatility than women.

Americans are almost equally concerned about short term market volatility as they are about achieving their long-term retirement goals, Franklin Templeton Investments found in its 2017 Retirement Income Strategies and Expectations Survey. Forty-seven percent are concerned about short-term volatility, and 53% are worried about their retirement goals.

Volatility concerns men more than women (51% versus 44%) while long-term retirement goals are top of mind for women (56% versus 49%).

Across generations, Gen Xers are the least concerned about volatility, with 39% saying they are paying attention to this. Franklin Templeton says that it is surprising that 47% of Millennials, who have the longest time horizon for investing, are worried about volatility and that 53% of them are worried about not being able to achieve their retirement goals.

“The 24-hour news cycle and global uncertainty contribute to an outsized preoccupation with the short term,” says Michael Doshier, vice president of retirement marketing at Franklin Templeton Investments. “Retirement planning should be approached holistically with a long-term focus, taking into account both short- and long-term risk tolerance and overall goals in relation to various demographic factors like household size.”

Sixty-two percent of people say that they consider other household members when thinking about retirement, and this jumps to 84% if the person is married or living with a partner. Among those with a child under the age of 18, 16% expect that saving for their child’s education will delay their retirement. Seventeen percent of working Americans with a child under the age of 18 are looking for college savings-related tools.

Thirty-two percent of Baby Boomers and 31% of the Silent Generation say that their 401(k) retirement plan savings is their primary source of income in retirement.

Eighty-one percent of those who have worked with an adviser say they are confident in their ability to invest for retirement, compared to 53% of those who do not have an adviser. Among those working with an adviser, 95% say that they are integral to generating retirement income.

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NEXT: Retirement income knowledgeOnly 40% of those who are investing in a 401(k) plan know how much it will generate in income during their retirement. That is a rather remarkable finding, as 60% of men and 47% of women say that they have a strategy to generate income for a retirement that could last 30 to 40 years—or longer.

Thirty-two percent would like more investment options, and 9% would like different investment options.

Fifty-three percent would be willing to retire later if necessary, down from 62% in the 2014 survey. Twenty-two percent of those working with an adviser would prefer taking on more risk to retiring later.

ORC International’s Online CARAVAN conducted the online survey for Franklin Templeton among 2,013 people in January.

Fiduciary Benchmarks Launches IRA Best Interest Determination Service

Fiduciary Benchmarks is planning to launch a series of services in response to the DOL’s conflict of interest rule.

Ahead of the Department of Labor (DOL)’s fiduciary rule implementation, Fiduciary Benchmarks is launching a suite of tools to help advisers comply with the legislation set to take effect June 9. 

First, FBi released an IRA Rollover Service addressing the requirements of the Fiduciary Rule and FINRA 13-45. The firm plans to follow this release with the launch of IRA Benchmarking, level fee vs. commission analysis and additional compliance work flows.

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“We prioritized the IRA Rollover service first as that was clearly the biggest need for our client base—and as noted in the DOL Best Interest preamble, the rollover decision will be the most important financial decisions that many consumers make in their lifetime,” explains Craig Rosenthal, senior vice president of Advisor Sales & Service. “With respect to IRA benchmarking, we decided that given the rate of change to pricing and products in response to the fiduciary rule that it would be best to let things settle before moving onto IRA benchmarking, which is now scheduled for a October launch.”

CEO Tom Kmak adds, “We are very excited to bring this service to the marketplace. We have demonstrated the system to over 200 different companies and we have listened carefully to their thoughts and comments while staying true to our vision to always look at more than just fees. In fact, the decision making algorithm considers 16 different issues in a simple one-page format that is completely consistent with FINRA 13-45 and the Fiduciary Rule. The system also handles three different types of transactions for rollovers: recommendations, education or an unsolicited request. This flexibility allows our clients to use the service in every market segment of their institution: high net worth, asset management, and their retail divisions.”

The firm plans to leverage its existing patented method and technology from its DC plan benchmarking suite of services.

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