Almost 70 per cent of Indians are worried about outliving their retirement money, yet only two out of ten in employees opt for a retirement plan, other than what is mandated by law. More than eight out of 10 Indians (80 per cent) have done no retirement planning independent of any mandatory government plans, said the Metlife surveys - the study of International Employee Benefits Trends and the sixth annual US Study of Employee Benefits Trends. "Despite worries about funding a comfortable retirement or outliving their retirement savings, many full-time workers in developing and mature economies, have taken few or no independent steps to plan for retirement," said MetLife India Managing Director Rajesh Relan, while releasing the findings of the surveys. In India, the surveys said, "while almost three out of four employees (71 per cent) say they are concerned about outliving retirement money, only one out of every three (35 per cent) say they have taken steps to determine retirement need; only 20 per cent say they have done actual planning for retirement." The surveys further point out that while 80 per cent employees in India and 81 per cent in Mexico have no retirement plans other then the mandatory ones, the number was low in developed countries like Australia (58 per cent), the US (46 per cent) and the UK (31 per cent). The MetLife surveys noted that nearly half of the Indian employees (48 per cent) whose employers do not offer retirement benefits would be interested in purchasing retirement planning products through their employer, even if they had to pay 100 per cent of the cost. By tradition, typically a family would take care of its older members, but with the geographic mobility among more young people to locations far away from their family home base, the traditional family 'safety net' is becoming frayed in many fast growing countries, the surveys said. The widespread lack of independent retirement preparedness is especially worrisome in both developing and mature economies as life expectancies around the globe continue to rise and pension reforms puts more responsibility on employees to fund their own retirements, they added. In terms of retirement preparedness, the surveys said, the UK was ‘most financially fit’ and ahead of the other countries. About 71 per cent of UK workers surveyed say they have taken steps to determine their households' retirement needs and 69 per cent have actually started to plan, the surveys added. The surveys, which were conducted by GfK Research, aim at providing an insight into financial needs, habits and perceptions of employees and employers in India, Mexico, Australia, the UK and the US.
