Forget about the inheritance, kids — the (affluent) parents are more worried about having enough money to see them through retirement.
The 2015 TIAA-CREF Affluent Investor Barometer survey found that 50 percent of affluent investors — those with $250,000 or more in investable assets — said their most important investment goal was generating income in retirement. Not convinced? Forty-one percent said that their top goal is to accumulate savings for retirement.
Just 5 percent are thinking about amassing a legacy for their heirs, and even among investors with $1 million or more in investable assets, their top concern is not the kids; just 10 percent said that leaving heirs with a legacy was their primary focus.
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Why so wary of running out of funds? "Retirement looms large even for higher-net-worth Americans who recognize the importance of saving and investing," Kathie Andrade, executive vice president, head of Individual Advisory Services at TIAA-CREF, said in a statement.
Andrade continued, "Retirement can sometimes last 20 or 30 years or more, so individuals need to strike the right balance between shorter-term financial priorities and long-term planning to help ensure they'll have income to last throughout their retirement."
Still, one would expect self-avowed optimists to maybe be thinking a tad more broadly — especially since the majority of respondents said they believe the economy is strong. Sixty-three percent are downright bullish. Men who feel that way outnumber women (73 percent compared with 51 percent), and those with more money are definitely coming down on the side of the bull (70 percent of those with $5 million or more in assets, compared with 57 percent of those with $250,000–$500,000 in assets).
But they're still worried. Fears for the economy range from geopolitical instability (28 percent) to market volatility (24 percent) to an uptick in unemployment (17 percent). But the winner among fears is asset losses because of a market downturn, which had 35 percent of respondents lying awake at night.
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