Advisors say 80% of their clients unready to retire -- and 40% may never be. Recently SEI published the results of a "quick poll" of 31 bank-based wealth managers. One of the key takeaways of that study was the view that many clients fret they don't have enough money to retire comfortably on -- and that, in any case, they don't really know how much money they'll need.

Now Curian Capital, a provider of fractional-share separately managed accounts, is out with a survey of 1,305 independent advisors, also focused on their clients' preparedness for retirement. And, if anything, the news from this study is even direr than from the SEI report.

The challenge

Curian says that 90% of the advisors who responded to its survey feel that at least 80% of their clients don't have enough put away to meet their expected standards of living in retirement. Further, 40% of those surveyed feel their clients don't have enough time to build enough wealth to fund their post-work lives.

In Curian's view, the answer to this seemingly insoluble dilemma is retirement-income planning.

"The challenge advisors face is getting investors to understand that the traditional approach to income planning may not allow them to achieve the standard of living they are expecting in retirement," says Curian's president and CEO Michael Bell. "By exposing this shortfall and effectively positioning managed accounts as a customizable retirement income solution, advisors can add real value to their client relationships."

When asked to define their primary role in income planning, 42% of respondents said that determining the required savings and portfolio structure to meet their clients' future retirement needs as a top priority.

Managing the client's portfolio during the income distribution phase came next, with 31% of respondents citing this function as their most important role.

Denver-based Curian does most of its business with independent brokers, but it also works with RIAs, banks and credit-union service organizations.

Curian is a subsidiary of Lansing, Mich.-based Jackson National Life Insurance. It had around $3.4 billion in assets under management at the end of June 2008.

You can get a copy of the survey results by emailing Curian's public relations director Andrew Silver. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article.