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Mind the Retirement Gap: Turning Awareness into Action

Author

Bill Nash
Vice President, Head of Member Relations & Sales, LIMRA and LOMA

October 2026

Americans approaching retirement are paying attention. In LIMRA’s R3: Retirement Income Readiness Report, 88% of pre-retirees say they have thought about how they’ll generate retirement income. They’re worried about the right things: inflation, healthcare costs and outliving their savings.

Yet, awareness isn’t translating into action. More than three-quarters (76%) have no meaningful or recently updated plan, 61% report little active planning and only 40% work with a financial professional. That disconnect, or what we call the awareness-action gap, may be the most important finding in this research for our industry, and closing it is squarely the work of financial professionals.

Concern, on its own, doesn’t produce a plan. Many consumers see planning itself as the obstacle — costly, complicated or a threat to their sense of control — so they delay. And the stakes are emotional as much as financial: Even consumers who believe they’re well prepared report anxiety about whether their money will last. Confidence, in other words, doesn’t come from assets alone — it comes from having a plan.

Advisors Are Confidence Accelerators

The clearest signal in the report is the gap between consumers who work with a financial professional and those who don’t: 77% of advised pre-retirees feel prepared, versus 47% of those going it alone. LIMRA researchers call advisors “confidence accelerators,” and the label fits; guidance is one of the strongest, most measurable drivers of preparedness in the study, independent of wealth. Yet only 40% of pre-retirees work with one. The awareness exists, and the demand for reliable income exists; what’s missing is the bridge between them.

A Simple Framework 

That bridge can be a single conversation. LIMRA built the R3 Framework to make retirement planning clearer and less intimidating — a guided conversation, not a daunting calculation — organized around three questions: Do you have a plan? Can your plan withstand inflation, market volatility and unexpected costs? And do you know how your savings will become income that lasts?

Those three lenses — Readiness, Resilience and Retirement Income — give advisors a simple structure.

Start with Readiness to establish where clients stand, without judgment; the biggest jump in preparedness occurs between having no plan and putting one in writing. Use Resilience to pressure-test assumptions against inflation, volatility, healthcare costs and longevity, reframing planning as ongoing adaptation. Then turn to Retirement Income, where both the greatest opportunity and the greatest anxiety live: shift from accumulation to income clarity — what the monthly paycheck will look like and where it will come from.

Where Confidence Is Won

Three in four pre-retirees (75%) want to learn more about creating protected lifetime income, and 80% say pensions or annuities would improve their sense of preparedness — yet only 25% believe their protected income will cover essential expenses. That gap between desire and confidence is an open invitation. Advisors who lead with the income conversation — translating assets into a predictable monthly picture and addressing the two most common objections, perceived cost and reluctance to give up control — are answering the exact questions that drive or drain retirement confidence.

The story is ultimately optimistic: Preparedness isn’t fixed by market luck. It’s built — through planning, guidance and confidence in reliable income. Our clients have already done the hardest emotional work. They’re aware. What they need now is someone to help them act. That is the awareness-action gap, and for financial professionals, closing it is both the clearest opportunity in retirement planning today and our most important responsibility. The awareness is already there. The action is ours to help unlock.

About the Research: The Retirement Income Readiness Report is based on an analysis of data from U.S. Consumer Sentiment: April 2026, a nationally representative survey of 3,006 U.S. adults age 18 and older. For this report, LIMRA analyzed responses from 486 pre-retirees (workers age 45 and older who plan to retire within 10 years) and 804 retirees age 45 and older. Retirement income preparedness was measured using respondents' self-reported readiness scores on a scale of 0 to 10.

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