No, they just don't get it. While Americans do pay attention to the balance in their retirement accounts, more than half of them — 52% — don't understand how that balance translates into retirement income.
So says a new column from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute, which finds that among American workers age 20 to 79, 52% say it's tough to figure out how much income that retirement account balance means they'll have when the big day comes.
Annuity groups have been lobbying lawmakers for lifetime income estimates for workers. One bill currently in front of Congress, the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act, would require retirement plans to show participants how their savings would look as an monthly income stream.
Retirement income estimates can help workers make better decisions, the LIMRA report says, with 48% increasing their savings level once they've seen an estimate of what they'll have as income in retirement. It seems to hit millennials particularly hard, since LIMRA SRI finds that 55% of them boost their retirement savings level once they've seen an income estimate.
