Industry News

On April 22, 2021, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) published its report, 2021 Retirement Confidence Survey Summary Report. The 31st annual survey found that workers’ overall confidence in retirement security remains high despite the COVID-19 pandemic which has created great uncertainty in the labor and financial markets.  

According to the survey, 80% of retirees are confident in their ability to live comfortably throughout retirement, up from the 76% from 2020. In addition, 72% of workers are confident in their ability to retire comfortably, up 3 percentage points from 2020.

Overall, most workers are satisfied with their workplace retirement savings plans, while their contributions and investments remained largely unchanged during the past year. Due to the pandemic, about 22% of workers adjusted the age at which they plan to retire. Of those workers, 17% reported they plan to retire later while only 5% reported they plan to retire earlier.

A key difference found in the survey was that the pandemic increased confidence in both Social Security and Medicare. The survey found that confidence in Social Security continuing to offer benefits reached an all-time high of 72% for retirees and 53% for workers, while confidence in Medicare was 75% for retirees and 60% for workers.

The summary report is available here.