Most Pre-Retirees Think About Income. Few Have a Plan for It

Nearly nine in ten Americans approaching retirement have thought about how they will generate income once they stop working. That sounds encouraging — until you look at what happens next. According to new research from LIMRA, half of those same pre-retirees lack a meaningful or recently updated retirement plan, and only four in ten work with a financial advisor. The gap between thinking about retirement income and actually planning for it is one of the most consequential blind spots in retirement preparation today.

The findings come from LIMRA’s Retirement Income Readiness Report, fielded in April 2026 among 486 pre-retirees — workers aged 45 and older who plan to retire within ten years — and 804 retirees aged 45 and older. The research examines not just whether people feel prepared for retirement, but what actually drives that sense of preparedness — and the answer points clearly toward protected lifetime income.

The Intention-to-Action Gap

The gap between awareness and action is striking. While 88% of pre-retirees have thought about retirement income, 76% have no plan at all or have spent fewer than five hours in the past year on retirement planning. The concern is there. The follow-through is not.

This is not primarily a knowledge problem. Pre-retirees understand that retirement income requires planning. What the LIMRA data reveals is that awareness, on its own, does not translate into action. People know the conversation needs to happen. Most have not had it in any meaningful way.

The consequences show up in the confidence numbers. While nearly six in ten pre-retirees rate themselves as highly prepared for retirement, roughly four in ten do not — and retirees, reflecting back on their own preparedness at the time they retired, report nearly the same split. Thinking about income does not make someone prepared. Planning for it does.

What Actually Drives Retirement Preparedness

The LIMRA research goes beyond measuring confidence to identify what drives it. And the findings are unambiguous: protected lifetime income is one of the most powerful predictors of retirement preparedness — for pre-retirees and retirees alike.

Among pre-retirees with a pension and/or annuity, 78% report high retirement preparedness. Among those without either, that figure drops to 50%. A 28-percentage-point gap in confidence, driven directly by the presence or absence of guaranteed income. This is not a marginal difference. It reflects the fundamental role that predictable, protected income plays in how people experience retirement — and how secure they feel approaching it.

The contrast between current retirees and pre-retirees is equally telling. Today, 52% of retirees say their basic living expenses are fully covered by protected lifetime income — Social Security, pensions, and annuities. Among pre-retirees, only 25% believe their protected income sources will cover essential expenses in retirement. The generation entering retirement now faces a much wider gap between what they have coming in and what they need — and most of them know it.

The Advice Gap Compounds the Problem

Only 40% of pre-retirees currently work with a financial advisor. Among the least-prepared group — those who rate their retirement readiness lowest — only 8% have professional guidance. The correlation is direct and dramatic: pre-retirees who work with an advisor or planner report high preparedness at a rate of 77%, compared to 47% among those without one.

That 30-percentage-point gap in confidence is not explained by wealth alone. The LIMRA research finds that planning engagement and access to trusted guidance independently drive preparedness — meaning that working with a financial professional produces better retirement outcomes even when controlling for how much someone has saved.

The implication is clear. The majority of pre-retirees who are not working with an advisor are navigating one of the most complex financial transitions of their lives without support. They are thinking about retirement income. They are worried about outliving their money. And they are doing it largely alone.

Three in Four Want to Learn More About Protected Income

One of the most significant findings in the LIMRA report involves demand. Seventy-four percent of pre-retirees say they want to learn more about protected lifetime income options. That is not a niche interest. That is the clear majority of people approaching retirement raising their hand and asking for information about guaranteed income.

Yet only 25% believe their current protected income sources will cover essential expenses. The gap between what people want to know about and what they actually have in place is substantial — and it represents one of the most direct planning opportunities in retirement income today.

Among the most-prepared pre-retirees — those who rate their readiness highest — 93% have taken action to learn about protected income options. Among the least prepared, only 67% have done so. Learning about protected income is not just correlated with confidence. It is part of what separates people who feel ready from those who do not.

Finding	Data Point
Pre-retirees who have thought about retirement income	88%
Pre-retirees lacking a meaningful or updated plan	50%
Pre-retirees working with a financial advisor	40%
Pre-retirees who believe protected income will cover expenses	25%
Pre-retirees with pension/annuity reporting high preparedness	78%
Pre-retirees without pension/annuity reporting high preparedness	50%
Pre-retirees who want to learn more about protected income	74%
Retirees whose basic expenses are fully covered by protected income	52%

Cost and Control: The Barriers the Industry Must Address

The LIMRA report identifies the two biggest psychological obstacles to annuity consideration: perceived cost and reluctance to give up control of assets. These are not irrational concerns, but they are also not accurate ones when applied broadly to all forms of guaranteed income.

Today’s annuity products span a wide range of structures. Fixed indexed annuities, for example, provide protected growth and guaranteed income without requiring a full, irrevocable transfer of assets. Income riders allow retirees to maintain access to their account value while still receiving guaranteed lifetime payments. Partial annuitization — converting enough savings to cover essential expenses while keeping the remainder flexible — directly addresses the control concern without sacrificing the income security that drives preparedness.

The perception that annuities require giving up all control, or that they are uniformly expensive, reflects an outdated picture of the product landscape. The LIMRA data suggests that three-quarters of pre-retirees are open to learning more. What they need is accurate information — and guidance from someone who can help them evaluate which structures actually fit their situation.

What This Means for Anyone Approaching Retirement

The LIMRA findings draw a clear line between two groups of people approaching retirement: those who have moved from thinking about income to planning for it, and those who have not. The difference in confidence between those two groups is significant. The difference in actual preparedness — measured by whether protected income will cover essential expenses — is even larger.

Thinking about retirement income is not a plan. Worrying about outliving savings is not a strategy. The research is clear about what actually closes the gap: protected lifetime income, professional guidance, and a written plan that translates savings into a reliable income structure. For pre-retirees who have done the thinking but not yet done the planning, the gap between those two things is exactly where retirement security is won or lost.

Source: LIMRA. Read the original release.