Allstate: Boomers More Worried About Retirement

August 21, 2002 at 08:00 PM

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NU Online News Service, Aug. 21, 4:10 p.m. – Baby boomers are worried about the plummeting value of their retirement savings, according to new survey results from Harris Interactive Inc., Rochester, N.Y.

The researchers who conducted the survey, sponsored by The Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill., interviewed 1,400 people born between 1946 and 1961 over the telephone. Participants all had annual household incomes between $35,000 and $100,000.

The average value of the participants?f retirement savings fell to $93,000 this year, from $120,000 in 2001, Allstate says.

Fifty-two percent of the baby boomers surveyed said they were concerned about saving enough money for retirement, up from 29% a year earlier, and the proportion worried about paying for health care after retirement increased to 67%, from 39%.

Women were a little more concerned than men about getting sick in their old age and running out of money, but they were a lot more worried about Social Security disappearing: 54% of the women surveyed said they worried about Social Security disappearing, compared with only 40% of the men.

Fifty-six percents of the respondents and 58% of the African-American respondents had no financial advisors.

Researchers found that only 33% of the white participants who lacked advisors but 49% of the African-American participants thought they would benefit from getting professional financial advice.

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