Equitable research looks at financial protection as an asset class

Research commissioned by Equitable examined attitudes toward retirement in light of increased inflation and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings below provide actionable insights centered on financial protection products, and their role in protecting retirement savings and assets.

Key findings:

Inflation and the pandemic are driving changing attitudes toward retirement:

• • Four in 10 Americans have less confidence in their ability to achieve their retirement goals than before the pandemic, with 77% of those respondents citing increasing prices and 72% of them citing reduced spending power as a concern.
  • Almost half have already acted on these concerns since the pandemic, and some have relied on specific tactics such as changing investment strategies, saving more toward retirement or pursuing part-time work or a new career, and delaying retirement or taking loans from retirement savings.

Top retirement goals are guaranteed monthly income and protecting savings from market fluctuations:

• • Two in three respondents ranked monthly guaranteed money to cover living expenses as their top retirement goal, with protection of savings falling close behind at 60%.
  • These goals ranked well above others, such as saving a specific amount for retirement or earning a competitive rate of return on savings.

 

Greater comfort and knowledge of financial protection products:

• • More than six in 10 U.S. household decisionmakers report familiarity with financial protection products, with more affluent respondents citing the most familiarity.
  • More than half of survey takers say they are comfortable with financial protection product investments, and nearly half recognize such products can help protect their investments from rising inflation and sustained market downturns.
  • Two thirds of those between 35 and 52 report being more interested in financial protection products as a response to the pandemic.
  • More than half of Americans are currently invested in a financial protection product such as annuities or life insurance, and almost half are currently invested in, or considering, annuities.
  • Among those invested in financial protection products, 58% are confident that these types of products will have a positive impact on their retirement goals, and only 11% say they are not confident of that positive impact.

 

Increased interest in professional advice:

• • Among Americans who don’t have a financial advisor or aren’t sure if they have one, 53% report interest in obtaining one.
  • Advice on investments in general and financial protection products with guarantees, such as annuities and life insurance, are of the most interest when considering a financial advisor.

 

 

Methodology

The research, “Financial Protection as an Asset Class,” was conducted by KRC Research. A representative cross-section of Americans consisting of 1,000 household decision-makers aged 35-79 were surveyed online in Q1 2022. The survey sample mirrors Census demographic distributions of gender, race/ethnicity, and region for this age group. All percentages have been rounded. The use of the term “financial advisor” or “advisor” for purposes of the survey questions and responses by both the consumers and the financial advisors queried does not necessarily imply that the individual is a registered investment advisor (RIA). The use of these two terms is meant in a general sense of the word or phrase to describe working with an investment advisor, a licensed insurance agent or other financial professionals who may sell annuity products.