Americans See a Retirement Worse Than Parents’

"It is highly influenced by younger people for sure, but still — 39% of our whole population of interviewees, from 18 into retirement — clearly still there's an issue with some older folks," he said, adding that increasing savings for people who are starting late is a problem that is beginning to be talked about more. Automatic enrollment and age-based defaults help increase savings, but "if you're late to get started and you don't start saving till, say, you're in your 30s, there's nothing that really addresses that problem."

Doshier added that recent proposals from Washington could "further curtail some use of retirement vehicles from a financial standpoint." He said that a good advisor who starts talking about retirement income early on in the relationship can get ahead of the "surge of concern," which appears "well before that red zone of the last five to 10 years. It's more like 15 to 20 years out." Advisors who really want to put those fears to rest need to encourage their clients to keep making their 401(k) contributions no matter what the markets are doing and show them how their various sources of income — 401(k)s, IRAs, Social Security — will come together to make a paycheck in retirement. "If they do nothing more than have those kinds of tactical conversations, most people that have that level of advisor relationship, they know more about what to expect from Social Security, they feel better about themselves," Doshier said.

In fact, Doshier said, "The next big battlefront for advisors is being enough of a Social Security consultant that they can say, 'Here's what you're tracking toward, and here's the gap you've got left.'"

The survey asked respondents if they think they're doing enough on Social Security, Doshier said, and found most are comfortable with the basics, but few can really call themselves experts, especially for a topic that can be fairly complex for all but the simplest, "married for 40 years, held one type of job" kind of client. "There's a subset out there that feels like they're going heavy at this and becoming experts," he said. "The vast majority feel like they do some basics. There's still a minority out that that refers people to the SocialSecurity.gov website or some other kind of administrative solution."

Doshier noted that Social Security will impact clients differently depending on their income level. "If you break out all the different socio-economic statuses, the lower income level should be fairly well served by that income mechanism. The upper income level, if they do a good job saving, should be well-served of their own accord," he said. "There are a middle couple of levels where they make enough that Social Security provides less, but maybe they didn't make enough that they feel like they could save to fill that gap."

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Check out How to Get Tax-Free Retirement Income With Life Insurance on ThinkAdvisor.