80 pc Indians have no independent retirement planning: Study

Mumbai, June 25 (UNI) A whopping 80 per cent of the Indian employees had no retirement planning, independent of any mandatory government plans, according to a survey carried out by insurance company Metlife.

MetLife India Insurance Company Limited (MetLife), one of the fastest growing Life Insurance companies in India, today announced the findings of two MetLife surveys -- the inaugural Study of International Employee Benefits Trends (iEBTS) and the sixth annual US study of Employee Benefits Trends (EBTS). According to the survey in India three out of four employees (71 per cent) said they are ''concerned'' about outliving retirement money. Only one out of every three (35 per cent) said they have taken steps to determine retirement needs, while only 20 per cent said they have done actual planning for retirement.

According to the survey, over 81 per cent Mexican employees, 58 per cent Australian employees, 46 per cent employees based in the US and over 31 per cent UK employees, have not taken any steps to determine income need or any sort of retirement planning.

In a sharp departure from the other countries surveyed, one-third (33 per cent) of Indian employees said they never expect to retire, which may account for why 80 per cent of all employees said they have not done any retirement planning.

Of those Indian workers who have planned for retirement, nearly six out of ten (58 per cent) said they have either achieved or are on track to achieve their retirement goals.

Reiterating the findings of the survey the Company Managing Director Rajesh Relan said, ''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''.

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