If you’ve opened a paper, turned on the news, or looked at awebsite in the past few months, then you’ve seen the headlines.It’s doom-and-gloom for baby boomers and pre-retirees, who seem tobe ill-prepared for the retirement that’s waiting for them in justa few short years.

But it’s not as bad as it seems. Companies are changing theirproduct lines to meet the needs of baby boomers, and many areproviding new educational opportunities to help customers preparefor a safer future.

Boomers in crisis

According to a recent poll by the Associated Press, 44 percent of baby boomers have little or no faith that they’llhave enough money when their careers end.

John Guido, division vice president of product marketing at ADPRetirement Services, said there were a couple of factorscontributing to this lack of confidence.

“First, saving too little,” he said. “Second, getting startedlater than they should have, and third, spending too much. It allboils down to a clear lack of understanding.”

The financial crisis also had a hand in knocking baby boomersoff their financial footholds, said Mark D. Scalercio, senior vicepresident and head of Employer Sponsored Business at AXAEquitable.

“The financial crisis put a lot of participants into action,” hesaid. “Before that they were sort of inactive, until they looked attheir balances and realized their 401(k)s were [more like]201(k)s.”

Elaine Sarsynski, head of MassMutual's Retirement Servicesbusiness, said that boomers also thought Social Security anddefined benefit plans would be there for them in retirement, butthat’s not the case anymore.

“There’s been a significant sea change in the traditionaldefined benefit plan and Social Security,” she said. “Now there’s adrive towards taking charge of your own retirement, instead ofletting the corporation do it for you in a defined benefitplan.”

Calculating need

Another issue is that many pre-retirees simply don’t know howmuch they’ll need in retirement. Sarsynski said she was recentlygiving a seminar, and asked everyone in the room how many of themhad actually calculated the adjusted income they’d need inretirement. Only one person raised their hand.

To combat this lack of education, many companies are providingtools that will make it easier for plan participants to calculatetheir retirement income need and see what adjusting theircontributions will do to their retirement savings goals.

MassMutual, for example, recently launched the RetireSmart Readytool. This interactive application allows users to log into awebsite, adjust a few variables, and the tool will calculate theparticipant’s likelihood of success in retirement.

In the summer, MassMutual is launching its PlanSmart Analysis,which takes the participant level information and rolls it up tothe plan sponsor so they can monitor the success of their entireenrollee plan.

“It gives the sponsor the opportunity to say, ‘Oh my goodness,only 30 percent of my participants have a chance at success inretirement? I don’t feel good about that.’” Sarsynski said. “Sothey can change their plan design, move the dial and begin to fixthe situation.”

AXA Equitable also has a retirement planning and education tool,which can be tailored to an individual's behavior, age, and careerstage. They’ve partnered with vWise in order to create a fullyintegrated online portal which allows them to plan their assetallocation, savings goals, etc.

“It’s guided by an interactive video, which uses smarttechnology so it will stop you if it sees you’re having trouble,”Scalercio said. “It’s very intuitive in nature. We’re happy to haveit.”

Products geared to boomers

In addition to the calculators available, companies are alsoworking hard to create new products aimed at boomers, and to marketthe existing ones that would be beneficial to pre-retirees moreaggressively.

At ADP, the auto features have been particularly helpful ingetting people to their retirement goals. ADP offers an auto-pacefeature, so that as a participant’s income grows, the contributionautomatically grows, too, and an auto-rebalance feature. And ofcourse, they offer an auto-enrollment option.

Putnam is about to launch a product line created specificallyfor baby boomers, which should be available mid-summer. The fundsare absolute return funds, which are mutual funds that promise areturn in any market condition. Robert L. Reynolds, Putnam'spresident and CEO, said in a press release, "We are seeking toaddress the breadth of retirees' ever-changing lifestyle incomeneeds and full range of risk tolerance by offering clear guidanceon withdrawal rates that can be adjusted regularly, as markets andtheir own life circumstances change."

AXA Equitable is trying to work more with small and mid-sizebusinesses to provide them the type of products larger companiescan get. Their Retirement Gateway is a comprehensive 401(k) productoffering with diverse investments and fund scrutiny.

Scalercio said that plan sponsors are often too busy runningtheir day-to-day businesses to spend a lot of time monitoring theirinvestments. AXA Equitable works with a third-party, WilshireAssociates Incorporated, to monitor investments.

For many boomers, though, getting guaranteed income throughretirement is the key. Scalercio said AXA Equitable currentlyoffers, in the individual market, variable annuities withguaranteed income (their Retirement Cornerstone product). They arehoping to offer a 401(k) with guaranteed income sometime in thefuture.

”We have some early thoughts on this, and we’re passed theexploratory stage,” he said. “I think at some time in the nearfuture we’ll add something like an in-plan guaranteed incomebenefit to our 401(k).”

For now, annuitization after retirement is the best option,Sarsynski said. Retirees should work with a professional financial advisor to determine how much of their savings toannuitize.

Education, education, education

Across the board, companies are vamping up their educationefforts to help boomers, pre-retirees, and younger generationsprepare for retirement.

MassMutual has been working with financial expert FarnooshTorabi to educate the public via Facebook, seminars, and othermeans.

“She’s really appealing in a commonsensical way about how tosave for retirement,” Sarsynski said.

Guido said ADP knows that people learn differently, so theyoffer several options for education; web-based tools, retirementsavings calculators, print mailers, and in-personseminars.

“The key is making it as easy as possible to take the scary outof it with a lot of these auto features and then layer in differenttypes of tools to help educate folks between the accumulation andthe distribution phase of their career,” he said.