IRI Research Outlines Unique Retirement Challenges Facing Women

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) today released a new research report highlighting the retirement income challenges confronting women in the United States. The report found that while women have made tremendous strides in closing the income gap over the last three decades, income disparities have translated into a 25 to 30 percent retirement savings shortfall compared to their male cohorts. 

Compounding the problem, women are more likely than men to be caregivers--resulting in lost or decreased wages. This time out of the work force combined with income disparities, decreases Social Security and employer-provided retirement benefits. The result is that women have less retirement savings and less retirement income from traditional resources, which are required to cover longer average retirement spans and higher lifetime health care costs. 

"Due to persisting income disparities, a retirement income glass ceiling has been placed over women, and it is limiting their ability to fund a secure retirement," IRI President and CEO Cathy Weatherford said. "But by working with a financial advisor, women can break through this barrier by developing a holistic retirement strategy that includes additional sources of retirement income."

The report found that:

• While half of Boomer men have retirement savings of at least $200,000, only 35 percent of female Boomers have reached this level of savings.
• Only a third of Boomer women are highly confident that they will have enough money to cover their health care expenses during retirement--compared to 41 percent of Boomer men.
• More than 43 percent of Boomer women expect to retire at age 65 or later and more than 34 percent do not know when they will retire.
• Nearly 53 percent of Boomer women have not consulted a financial advisor.
• When selecting a retirement investment product, the most important traits to Boomer women are guaranteed monthly income, financial advisor recommendation, and rate of return.
• Only four in ten women age 55 and older believe they have done a good job planning financially for retirement. One-quarter of women have little to no confidence that they are planning appropriately for retirement.

The full report can be found 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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