The majority of investors (92 percent) have to adjust theirretirement income plans after entering retirement, and most aredoing so in order to meet necessary expenses, according to a recentsurvey by Sun LifeFinancial.

The Retirement Income Pulse Poll of Financial Advisors, a nationalpoll of nearly 500 financial advisors, found that most investorsaren’t adjusting their retirement plans to accommodate lifestylechoices; rather, they’re trying to meet basic, non-discretionarycosts or avoid running out of income. Specifically, of financialadvisors who have clients who changed their retirement plans, 34percent did so as a result of non-discretionary expenditures suchas unexpected health costs, and 43 percent did so to avoidoutliving their income. Only 21 percent changed their plans to havemore discretionary income.

Sun Life Financial is one of several co-sponsors of National Retirement Planning Week, which begins today.

Other findings from the survey include:

• There is a significant gap between investors’ desire togenerate guaranteed lifetime income and their understanding of bestpractices to do so. For example, while the top concern of clientsage 50 or older is having enough income to retire on, advisorsreport that more than half (62 percent) of investors who couldbenefit from variable annuities don’t actually own them.

• Nearly a third (27 percent) of financial advisors say theirclients age 50 and older are “not very knowledgeable” or “notknowledgeable at all” about variable annuities. (21 percent are: extremely knowledgeable,52 percent are somewhat knowledgeable).

• Advisors believe investors would be more likely to invest invariable annuities if they had lower fees (43 percent), clientswere more educated (38 percent), variable annuities were easier tounderstand (38 percent), or VAs were a more common investment (29percent), among other reasons.

“It’s up to us in the retirement income planning field to showthat guaranteed retirement income solutions are worth the moneygiven the protection they help to provide against the risk ofdeclining interest rates, the risk of a declining stock market, andthe risk (if you’re are lucky enough to live a long life) ofrunning out of money,” said Terry Mullen, president of Sun LifeFinancial Distributors in a statement. “Investors are paying us toprovide them a guaranteed income stream for 30 or 40 years. That’san important service, since for most Americans, gone are the daysof defined benefit plans, where the employer provided guaranteedlifetime retirement income.”