Financial plans alone don’t ease retirement anxiety

A Fidelity survey titled “The Transition Ready Family” polled just over 650 savers and investors aged 55 and older with household net worths between $500,000 and $10 million. The average respondent was 63. Fifty-one percent of those who said they had completed a financial plan still reported anxiety about the future.

The survey found a link between family communication and confidence. Only 27% had explained the details of their plans to their children, and 35% said they keep heirs up to date on changes. Respondents who held frequent, open conversations about retirement with their children reported higher confidence: 71% felt confident after those talks, compared with 35% among those with no open conversations.

The poll identified gaps in practical readiness for heirs. About 22% of respondents could not name all household accounts, including checking, 401(k), college savings, health savings or retirement accounts. Roughly 30% said at least half of their accounts were not ready to be passed down. Among respondents reporting $5 million or more in household net worth, more than 40% said they lacked financial peace of mind.

Fidelity and financial advisers recommended several steps to address client concerns beyond producing a plan. Advisers may offer to organize periodic family meetings, learn clients’ specific financial anxieties and goals before building plans, and weigh current spending priorities alongside saving for retirement.

Dan Klug, a financial adviser at Edward Jones in Chesterfield, Missouri, described a common source of stress: having more wealth than previous generations and uncertainty about whether to transfer assets now or preserve them. He added, “What’s really important is not the financial legacy they’re going to leave them. It’s the experiences that people have.” Klug prefers neutral settings for family meetings, such as a private room in a restaurant, and asks clients to set boundaries about which topics to address in the session.

A separate poll conducted among more than 5,000 U.S. adults in March and April found age-related differences in financial comfort. Among baby boomers aged 62 to 80, 54% said they felt comfortable about current finances and 37% about future needs. Among millennials aged 30 to 46, 30% reported comfort with current finances and 25% with future needs. The poll also showed that 64% of millennials were saving for purchases and 39% for retirement, compared with 34% and 22%, respectively, for baby boomers.

Fidelity’s survey asked why older adults avoid detailed family discussions. Thirty-six percent said they had already covered the topics and saw no need to revisit them, 24% said they needed more preparation, and 19% said it was too early. The report noted the average age of respondents was 63.

The surveys presented data on communication, account organization and advisers’ meeting practices alongside measures of confidence. The findings include rates of lingering anxiety among those with plans, the association between detailed family conversations and higher confidence, and the share of accounts not prepared for transfer to heirs.