The world’s largest money manager, BlackRock Inc. (BLK), has news for America’s Early Boomers: youmay think your employer’s target date fund will get you throughretirement, but don’t expect your company to help you figure outhow to spend all the money you’ve saved.

Nearly half, or 46%, of employees enrolled in company-sponsoreddefined contribution (DC) retirement plans believe they will relyheavily on those plans in their financial future, according to aBlackRock survey released Wednesday. A full 72% of employeesauto-enroll into target date funds.

But while Early Boomer employees nearing retirement want help infiguring out how to spend their savings wisely, DC plan sponsorsaren’t stepping up to the plate because they are looking forregulatory clarity around how to handle post-retirement issues,said Chip Castille, head of BlackRock’s U.S. and Canada DefinedContribution Group, at a breakfast Wednesday in the company’s NewYork headquarters.

Castille pointed to survey results showing that 67.7% ofemployees believed that their employers should care more aboutfinancially secure retirements, and 63.8% of employers believed,paternalistically, that their firms should indeed care more. But57% of employees said their employers were not helpful in makingsure that their money lasts all through retirement and only 17% ofemployers said they felt a great deal of responsibility about theissue.

The reforms of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006,including auto-enrollment of workers in DC plans, will benefityounger Americans, Castille said. But older Americans—especiallyEarly Boomers—who missed out on the PPA’s advances will puttremendous pressure on plan sponsors to advise them on retirementincome, he predicted.

“They are going to push the DC system in much the same way thatthe dot.com bubble pushed the PPA,” Castille said. “When we look atthe community of providers, participants and consultants, there isa shared view that the DC plan is heading toward a majortransformation.

Specifically, according to BlackRock’s calculations, thattransformation will include a retirement income shift fromcomplicated bond ladders to target date funds that transform intoannuities. And as it happens, BlackRock has created a target dateproduct, LifePath Retirement Income, that provides guaranteedretirement income.

To be sure, BlackRock is in a good position to respond to thismajor transformation that Castille anticipates. BlackRock has morethan $325 billion in DC assets under management. And according to aJune 2009 Bloomberg report, when the company bought Barclays Plc’sinvestment unit, including iShares, the world’s largest family ofexchange traded funds, the purchase created a company overseeing$2.7 trillion in assets, more than the Federal Reserve.

BlackRock’s DC survey of 1,000 employees and 119 executivesmanaging DC plans totaling at least $1 billion in assets wasconducted online between Feb. 25 and March 31 by Boston ResearchGroup.

Other survey results presented at the breakfast by BostonResearch President Warren Cormier show that employees expect theirmost important retirement income sources to comprise 401(k) or403(b) savings, at 45.5%, followed by Social Security, at 14%,investments outside the workplace, at 9%, full-time work, at 9%,and part-time work, at 6%.

Just 16% of employees felt confident that they would have enoughmoney to live comfortably in retirement, while 50% were somewhatconfident and 8% worried they would never be able to retire.

“Confidence in retirement is becoming a luxury,” Cormiersaid.