Despite their hands-on approach, the study finds that Asian Americans can benefit from more investment education, according to WonHong Lee, head of MassMutual’s Diverse Markets. According to the report, 53 percent of Asian Americans are uncertain about the length of their retirement, while only 36 percent of Americans overall reported the same. Because fewer Asian Americans are confident in their retirement projections, they are not adequately planning to meet those needs, according to the report.
Asian American retirees (63 percent) are less confident about the right time to claim Social Security in order to maximize benefits, than American retirees overall (75 percent), the study finds.
The study polled 801 retirees who have been retired for a maximum of 15 years and 804 pre-retirees who are within 15 years of retirement. Greenwald & Associates conducted the research on behalf of MassMutual. Pre-retirees had household incomes of at least $40,000 and retired respondents had at least $100,000 in investable assets. Both groups participated in making household financial decisions. The internet-based survey included an oversample of Asian Americans for a total of 199 Asian Americans surveyed. For the purpose of this study, Asian American was defined as Chinese, Asian Indian and Korean. The research was conducted in January 2018.