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It’s sad but true: the U.S. is a politically divided country. That’s been the case for awhile now and the outlook for that scenario improving anytime soon isn’t great. It often feels as though getting Democrats and Republicans to agree that the sky is blue would be a heavy lift.
Admittedly, that was a bit of hyperbole because there are some things both sides of the political spectrum can agree on. One of those issues is the dire statement of retirement savings in the U.S. An August survey courtesy of BlackRock confirms retirement concerns are politically agnostic. One thing that stands out in the poll is that of the cohort that said they aren’t planning to retire, 78% said that’s the case because they think they can’t afford to.
Alone, that highlights the need for more investors and workers to consider hiring an advisor. So does the amount many people believe they’ll need to retire. According to BlackRock, that figure is $2.19 million, which jibes with what’s been seen in similar studies indicating American believe they’ll need well over $1 million to enjoy comfortable retirements.
That’s true regardless of how someone votes. So are the following details underscoring the tenuous nature of retirement in America.
Bipartisan Concerns About Retirement Money Matters
Regardless of political affiliation, 75% of those polled by BlackRock “are concerned about not being able to maintain their standard of living throughout retirement” while another 73% “are concerned about having inadequate savings or investments to fund needs in retirement.”
To be sure, those are concerning data points. Adding to the intrigue is that the average expected retirement age of those questioned by BlackRock is just 64 years old. That’s ambitious and while it’s not on advisors to rain on clients’ parades, the expectation of retirement at 64 implies many clients aren’t aware that at that age, they’d be getting the lowest tier of Social Security benefits for which their eligible.
Working longer and delaying receipt of Social Security until one is eligible for maximum benefits could be advisable for a broad swath of clients because two-thirds of those polled by BlackRock have less than $150,000 in retirement savings. Thirty percent of that group have nothing saved for retirement.
Remember, the survey was of eligible voters. It doesn’t get into who’s better at saving for retirement, but the important is Americans, regardless of political ties, are struggling to save for post-work life.
Advisors Need to Cater to Women
The following are also bipartisan data points and they’ll be prefaced by the following: women need to consider working with advisors and advisors need to make themselves more available to would-be female clients.
Of six major demographic groups with no retirement savings three are comprised of women: women 18 to 34, women of color and stay-at-home moms. Those three segments also appear among the six cohorts that have no emergency savings.
Bottom line: voters on both sides of the aisle need retirement help and that’s a call for advisors to put on their bipartisan hats and get to work.
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