IRI Issues New Fact Sheet on Male Boomers Just in Time for Father's Day

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) today released a new IRI Quick Facts for financial advisors that focuses on male Baby Boomers. The fact sheet, which is based on exclusive IRI survey findings, states that male Boomers tend to be less risk averse when choosing investment products than their female counterparts.

When selecting a retirement investment product, the most important feature to male Boomers was rate of return followed by past investment performance. Of survey respondents, 22.2 percent of male Boomers favored rate of return, and 15.3 percent selected past performance. By comparison, rate of return was favored by only 15.1 percent of female Boomers, and just 11.5 percent selected past performance. Women were inclined to select retirement products based on guaranteed monthly income and financial advisor recommendation--as identified by 17.6 percent and 17.2 percent of female Boomer survey participants, respectively, compared to 14.4 percent and 12.7 percent of male Boomers.

"As our dads quickly approach retirement age, as financial professionals, we need to have conversations with them and their families to ensure that they have a financial plan in place to attain security during their later years," said IRI President and CEO Cathy Weatherford. "The sooner we have these conversations, the more time they will have to prepare appropriately and make necessary adjustments. IRI has developed this fact sheet to provide a starting point and to help facilitate those conversations with a goal of developing a plan toward financial security."

The fact sheet also shows that a significant portion of male Boomers will continue to financially support family members, as more than 28 percent are currently supporting adult children and another eight percent support parents.

IRI Quick Facts: A Portrait of a Male Boomer, 2012 also discusses male Boomers' retirement expectations, savings levels, retirement planning status and views, and outlook on the future. For the entire IRI Quick Facts, click here.

About the Insured Retirement Institute: The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) is a not-for-profit organization that for twenty years has been a mainstay of service, commitment and collaboration within the insured retirement industry. Today, IRI is considered to be the authoritative source of all things pertaining to annuities, insured retirement strategies and retirement planning. IRI proudly leads a national consumer education coalition of nearly twenty organizations and is the only association that represents the entire supply chain of insured retirement strategies: our members are the major insurers, asset managers, broker dealers and more than 150,000 financial professionals. IRI exists to vigorously promote consumer confidence in the value and viability of insured retirement strategies, bringing together the interests of the industry, financial advisors and consumers under one umbrella. IRI's mission is to: encourage industry adherence to highest ethical principles; promote better understanding of the insured retirement value proposition; develop and promote best practice standards to improve value delivery; and to advocate before public policy makers on critical issues affecting insured retirement strategies and the consumers that rely on their guarantees. Visit www.IRIonline.org today to experience the vast resources of the Insured Retirement Institute for yourself.

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