Bucket List? Only 4 in 10 Pre-Retirees Have Thought About It

LIMRA Launches New App to Help Retirees Prepare for Retirement

WINDSOR, Conn., May 11, 2011 — Despite the popular movie, The Bucket List, only 40 percent of pre-retirees say they have a bucket list (a list of things they want to do before they die) or plan to have a bucket list for their retirement years, according to new research by LIMRA.

“While many pre-retirees have a more realistic idea about how long they expect to live in retirement, they have not considered how they will spend that time or planned how they will afford it,” said Paul Henry, managing director, LIMRA retirement products. “LIMRA’s research indicates that less than a third of pre-retirees within three years of retirement have a written retirement plan. What we hear from pre-retirees is that the idea of planning for retirement seems complicated and overwhelming, and advisors have told us that their clients often are unprepared to begin the process of retirement planning.”

To help overcome pre-retirees’ procrastination and help them identify their retirement goals, LIMRA has developed a new interactive web-application, Ready-2-Retire, to engage and educate the next generation of retirees on the financial risks and opportunities in retirement.

Ready-2-Retire offers consumers, in a friendly, non-threatening way, visual prompts to help them identify their retirement priorities, such as where they will live, travel aspirations and hobbies. It provides research-based guidance on potential financial risks in retirement, like longevity, taxes and inflation. When completed, consumers will have a retirement profile that they can send to their advisors, helping them create an appropriate retirement plan.

“This tool can help consumers envision their lives in retirement and provide their advisors with an outline of their retirement goals and concerns before meeting with them to develop a retirement plan,” noted Henry. “Too often, pre-retirees have focused so much on reaching their predetermined savings goals without consideration on how they wish to live in retirement and how much it will cost.

“Ready-2-Retire also prompts clients to think about the risks they will face during the different stages of retirement, providing information that they might not have thought about,” added Henry. “By the time the clients are meeting with their advisor, they have a better understanding about what a comprehensive retirement plan involves and are ready to discuss the details, saving time for both the advisor and clients.”

For more information or to view a demo of Ready-2-Retire, please visit: Ready-2-Retire.

About LIMRA

LIMRA is a worldwide research, consulting and professional development organization that helps more than 850 insurance and financial services companies in 73 countries increase their marketing and distribution effectiveness. Visit LIMRA at www.limra.com.