Financial planners are thriving because....

[Corporateburnout]

Based on this article from MarketWatch it seems that the majority of retirement age Americans failed a retirement knowledge quiz.

From the article:" Almost 75% of Americans in retirement age failed a retirement literacy quiz hosted by the American College of Financial Services, which asked how to make money last through their golden years. Questions included when a loan has to be repaid on a reverse mortgage or when the best time is for a 90-year-old to claim Social Security benefits."

Retirement-age Americans are failing this financial literacy quiz - MarketWatch

I took the quiz and got 3 wrong answers out of 38. Some questions are tricky but not too bad.

A link to the quiz if you can't access the link in the article.

https://retirement.theamericancollege.edu/retirement-101/retirement-income-literacy-quiz

 

[Midpack]

I thought this doc linked in the above was more encouraging than most of the articles out there. While many are not adequately prepared, maybe there are more than we thought?

https://www.aegon.com/siteassets/re...016-aegon-retirement-readiness-report-usa.pdf

The U.S. outranks most countries in the 2016 Aegon Retirement Readiness Index. With a score of 6.7 out of 10, the U.S. has a medium level of retirement readiness. Globally, the U.S. and Brazil tie for second place out of the 15 countries included in the 2016 research, an improvement for the U.S. from the 2015 survey

Retirement savings can be a touchy topic for some folks — the U.S. outranks most countries in retirement preparedness, according to the Aegon Retirement Readiness Index (with a score of 6.7 out of 10), but only 26% had written retirement plans in place in 2016 and few Americans had backup plans, the study showed.

I found this to be true of my employees. Many made big 401k contributions, some even maxed out and had a reasonable 401k AA, but few of them had a plan. They just saved as much as possible expecting they'd never have enough. Hopefully they'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Walt34]

34 out of 38 so not too bad.

 

[broadway]

I failed!

 

[Alan]

I got 4 wrong, 3 dealing with Medicare and one about LTC.

 

[EastWest Gal]

33/38. All because of this group. I missed one question because a former lawyer of mine was wrong. The firm was fired years ago.

 

[Fedup]

I've passed but I got 33 out of 38.

 

[pb4uski]

+1 32 of 38 (84%)... missed a few of the LTC questions and a couple where I was on the fence between the right answer and what I did answer... like 1 and 33 (and 9).

I do have to say, this was one of the better tests that I have seen out there.

 

[MichaelB]

You passed. You scored 36 of 38 possible points for a total score of 95%

I missed

A deferred variable annuity with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits…
and
Which one of the following is false about the federal taxation of life insurance purchased by an individual?

Not sure what the value of this quiz is. When I read the thread title, my first thought is financial planners are thriving because their customers are upper income people either too busy or too confused to do it themselves, and are happy to pay 1% because they can focus on maintaining their high incomes.

 

[scrabbler1]

I got only 28 right. I don't know a lot of the intricate details about Medicare, life insurance, annuities, or long-term care issues.

 

[CardsFan]

I passed with 29, but most of the ones I got wrong were related to LTC insurance and annuities. Two things I have already decided I do not need/want for a variety of reasons.

 

[LOL!]

I think the standard financial [-]advisor[/-] sales rep would not pass the quiz. But I guess to be fair, such folks are not "retirement age" either.

It does look more like a way to get people thinking about annuities than having a real purpose to educate though.

 

[pb4uski]

I suspect that you are right.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Financial planners are thriving because im an idiot,i thought some guy with a few letters after his name in a suit that worked on wall street would be able to do better than me with building my empire. After 20 years of getting slapped around i took the reins , i do a better job. i took the quiz i got 3 wrong, they should have asked "if your 25 years old and want to build wealth use a financial planner from big wall street firm or do it yourself. i would have gotten that one wrong too.

 

[Sasset]

30 out of 38 for me. I missed mostly annuity and Medicare questions

 

[MRG]

I think the standard financial [-]advisor[/-] sales rep would not pass the quiz. But I guess to be fair, such folks are not "retirement age" either.

It does look more like a way to get people thinking about annuities than having a real purpose to educate though.

It's from AEGON an insurance company. They might have a interest in plugging annuities.

 

[tmm99]

33 so I passed, but I had no idea about Medicare and life insurance.

 

[brett]

We certainly did not need a financial planner for retirement. Lots of data points on the web and in the library. It is there for the taking.....or for the reading and comprehending.

We do however use the services of a fee for service investment adviser to manage our money. I do not have the expertise, do not want to put the work into keeping on top of it, and we have been very happy with the advice and the net returns.

What surprises me so much is how little some people seem to know about the basics of managing money, saving, and preparing for retirement. It is shocking
how unprepared some people are. And some of them are in for a huge shock when they can no longer pay even the minimum amount on their credit cards. It is not rocket science by any means.

 

[Cobra9777]

33 of 38. I also missed some of the questions about LTC, life insurance, and medicaid. On one of them, I knew the answer, but just read the question too quickly... missed the "least likely" part. Agree it was a pretty good test compared to many I've seen. But I kept thinking to myself, this would be a great tool for FAs to reinforce how "tough" this is so that current and potential clients continue to pay for professional help rather than educate themselves.

People choose to DIY on some things and outsource others, for a variety of reasons, not always because they lack the knowledge. I like to DIY almost everything, but I don't change the oil in our cars because I just don't have the equipment and facilities to do it as cost effectively as they can at the shop. We could easily afford to have someone mow the grass and maintain the pool, but I enjoy working outside and I know that I do a better quality job than the "professionals."

 

[jzajzz]

financial planners are thriving .. I thought most of them flame out early... but the ones that do stay .. do pretty well

 

[Another Reader]

33 seems to be about average for this group. I figured too low for life expectancy for a 65 year old man and for the percentage annuity payout. Wasn't sure if Medicaid or personal payments paid more for nursing care and guessed wrong on that one. I was much too low on the percentage of people needing care and I thought with Medicare and Medigap plans, retiree costs were similar. Thinking about how the question was worded, that's wrong. So good enough for a B on the test.

 

[Dog]

31 out of 38. Messed up on a couple of Medicare and Annuity questions. Also second guessed myself on two questions and changed from correct answer to incorrect [emoji851]

 

[RobbieB]

35

 

[EQMAN]

35

 

[Greg V]

33. Kind of surprised I got that many right. I could use some more reading in Medicare/Medicaid and LTC.