MetLife Study: Family Structure Shapes Every Aspect of Mid-Lifer’s Retirement Income Planning and Security
Provided By Eileen Cioe, CFP®, CFS®, CLTC
Can family structure dictate your level of financial comfort in retirement?
A
great deal of attention has been paid to the role that gender plays in retirement planning, but family structure is a critical and often overlooked component. A new study from MetLife’s Mature Market Institute shows that family dynamics strongly in- fluence retirement planning for people in mid-life. The Family Matters study was
developed to determine the degree to which family structure influences how people plan for retirement. It addressed three specific mid-life segments – ‘Tra- ditional Families’ (two parents and chil- dren from their current relationship), ‘Blended Families’ (two parents with at least one child from a previous relation- ship) and ‘Single Women’ (widowed, divorced or never-married women with or without children).
One of the Study’s central find- ings is that Blended Families and Single Women do not consider themselves prepared for what retirement holds. The majority of Traditional Families (55%) have a clear idea of what they hope to experience and achieve in retirement, compared with only 38% of Single Women and 48% of Blended
Families. Similarly, nearly seven out of ten (66%) of Traditional Families feel at least somewhat prepared for retirement, compared to only 56% of Blended Families and 40% of Single Women. Blended Families and Single Women
also believe that their families face unique challenges when it comes to re- tirement planning specifically because of their family situation. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of Single Women and Blended Families (61%) think that it’s significantly more difficult for them to save for retire- ment than it is for their friends who have different family situations. Roughly one in five Blended
Families and Single Women (19% and 18%, respectively) are concerned that they don’t have safeguards to ensure that an ex-spouse will not lay claim to their income or savings meant for themselves or their children. This sentiment is even higher among those that have experi- enced a divorce in the past five years.
48 Broward County, Florida
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