The financial service industry is so busy catering to wealthy Americans that many middle-income Americans are inadequately prepared for retirement, according to a study by the Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement.

The CSR's Middle-Income Retirement Preparedness Study found that 51 percent of middle-income retirees and pre-retirees (those with incomes between $25,000 and $75,000) had not been contacted by a retirement professional in the past 12 months, and 54 percent do not receive professional retirement guidance of any kind. Additionally, of those who do work with a retirement professional, 84 percent said they were the ones to initiate contact with the advisor.

Eighty-four percent of those not working with a financial advisor do not believe they need one. Chief reasons for not working with financial advisor include:

• I can do it myself (47 percent)
• I don’t have enough assets (37 percent)
• It’s too expensive (23 percent) 

Those who do have retirement advisors feel they’re worth it; two in three (68 percent) middle-income Americans who work with a professional feel better prepared for retirement than their peers, and 76 percent said they were extremely or very satisfied with their retirement professional. In fact, only 14 percent of respondents working with an advisor do not think they have saved enough money to live comfortably in retirement, whereas one-third (34 percent) of those surveyed without a professional advisor have this concern.

Other key findings from the study include:

• Almost two in three (63 percent) middle-income Americans age 55 to 75 are unsure if they have saved enough to live comfortably in retirement.
• Of all middle-income retirees and pre-retirees surveyed, 30 percent spend no time at all researching or investigating retirement planning opportunities; two out of three (61 percent) spend less than one hour per month.
• Although those without an advisor enjoy planning, 63 percent spend less than one hour per month on retirement planning compared to 58 percent of those with an advisor. Over one-third (36 percent) of those without an advisor spend no time at all doing this research.