Almost a third of millionaires nearing retirement have never consulted a financial professional because they feel they can do a better job on their own, according to a survey released Monday by Deloitte Center for Financial Services.
The survey found that while retirement confidence has increased since 2012, more than half of respondents said they're still not feeling financially set. Naturally, those who have a formal retirement plan and established savings are more confident, but 17% of those highly confident investors didn't have an advisor or even a retirement plan.
Sean Cunniff, investment management research leader for Deloitte, pointed out that the survey didn't study how prepared respondents were, just how confident they felt. He told ThinkAdvisor on Monday that some of those investors may have their head in the sand when it comes to their retirements, but there was also a "portion of the population that was extremely well off — high income, high asset. Those people don't have to have a plan if they've got a lot of wealth; they're probably going to be OK."
Cunniff noted that people who had a professional advisor and who had a plan also had the highest level of confidence in retirement.
"Those aren't brand new ideas, but the fact that so many people are not feeling confident tells us there's room for improvement in the advice and planning programs that are out there," he said.
Cunniff added that one of the most important things that people can do to improve their retirement outcomes is to start saving "at an early age, and that's something that the industry might not do a lot of because those people tend to not have a lot of assets."
That could be adding to investors' perception of workplace plans as the second most trusted source of financial information, after a primary advisor.
Cunniff attributed most of the improvement in retirement confidence to improvement in the economy overall. "We really couldn't pinpoint anything radical that had changed in the industry or practices. It seems most likely to be because things have been doing well in the economy and the markets," he said.
