A new study from Corebridge Financial reveals that a surprising majority of retirees are actually growing their nest eggs rather than drawing them down.
According to the research, 60% of already-retired participants had more money saved now than when they first entered retirement, while 14% had about the same amount.
Only about a quarter of participants saw their assets decline in value, with a small number admitting they were not tracking their account balances closely at all.
The findings suggest that many retirees are not underspending because they are exceptionally wealthy, but because they are too fearful to spend what they have saved.
Corebridge Financial, one of the country’s leading life-insurance and annuity providers, developed its research in consultation with personal-finance expert Jean Chatzky, who has a forthcoming book on annuities titled “The Forever Paycheck.”
“We’ve spent so much time thinking about accumulation that we haven’t thought about a plan to take what we have accumulated and stretch it over however long we live,” Chatzky said.
Critically, retirees who spent less than the interest being earned on their accounts and wound up with more than they started with reported having genuine regrets about their restraint.
This dynamic points to a widespread gap in retirement planning, where the focus on saving overshadows any structured strategy for actually using those funds in later life.
Chatzky emphasized that trust is a central factor when exploring financial products like annuities, warning retirees to walk away from advisers using confusing jargon they cannot understand.
Annuities, as advanced financial products, carry fee structures that are rarely transparent upfront, with costs typically embedded in pricing and interest rates rather than charged directly to the consumer.
“No explicit fee for a CD, but does the bank make money? Of course,” said Bryan Pinsky, president of individual retirement and life insurance at Corebridge.
Pinsky’s comment underscores a broader reality in retirement financial products, where the absence of visible fees does not mean a product is without cost to the buyer.
For retirees navigating these decisions, experts suggest asking direct questions about costs and ensuring any financial product is fully understood before committing to a long-term arrangement.
