What do consumers think about annuities? Not much — leaving plenty of room for advisors to change that, according to a Genworth survey.
The survey found 68% of respondents who don't own an annuity have a positive or neutral impression of them. Among owners, 91% had a positive or neutral impression.
Just 8% of annuity owners and 23% of non-owners had a negative view of the products.
However, while respondents reported mostly not-negative feelings about annuities, they weren't exactly raving about them. Regardless of whether they owned an annuity or not, more than half of consumers said they were neutral about them.
According to Genworth, that means there are opportunities for advisors who have clients that might benefit from annuities.
As part of the report, Genworth surveyed more than 1,300 retirees and pre-retirees and found almost three-quarters of pre-retirees expect to retire on time, despite less than half of retired respondents saying they were able to retire on their expected date.
Among the pre-retirees who were afraid they might not retire when they planned to, money was the main thing holding them back. More than three-quarters said they would not have enough money when they retired and 36% said expenses would be too high.
That's a legitimate concern, considering 64% of retired respondents said their expenses increased after they retired.
Genworth also conducted interviews with financial professionals and held focus groups with both professionals and consumers. The firm also surveyed 300 professionals online for the report.
