How Do Retirees Get Their Income? For Many, That's a Mystery

By Allison Bell

News November 04, 2018 at 06:23 PM

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A confused man (Image: Thinkstock)

Here's one big problem you may face when you're trying to sell annuities and other income planning products.

Even retirees who are collecting retirement income have no idea what common retirement income method terms mean.

Analysts at Nationwide have reported data hinting at the scope of the income planning literacy gap in a summary of results from a recent Harris Poll survey. The participants included 1,031 U.S. adults ages 50 and older, including 380 who have been retired for 10 or fewer years.

About 59% of those recent retirees still have savings accounts, and 38% have individual retirement accounts. Many of those recently retired survey participants are drawing income from their retirement assets.

But only 35% of the recently participants knew what retirement income method they were using; 65% said they were not sure what retirement income method, or methods, they were using.

About 22% knew they were taking systematic withdrawals.

Another 7% said they were using variable annuity withdrawal benefits, and 6% said they were using annuitization.

Other methods that broke the 1% penetration level included laddering, with a 4% share; bucketing, with a 2% share; and the income floor method, with a 2% share.

— Read Data Analytics Firm Develops Variable Annuity GLWB Value Ratio, on ThinkAdvisor.

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