While they’re experiencing greater optimism and increasingaffluence, African-Americans are hindered in building long-termwealth because of gaps in retirement planning.

Those are some of the findings from the “2015-2016 African American FinancialExperience” study from Prudential Financial, Inc., which alsofound that African-Americans are not taking full advantage offinancial and investment tools.

More than half of survey respondents said that they’re betteroff than they were five years ago and feel that they’re better offthan their parents were at their age.

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Interestingly, they also describe themselves as savers ratherthan investors. Most African-Americans (52 percent) feel very wellprepared to make smart financial decisions, while only 40 percentof the general population feels the same way.

In addition, those savvy respondents express high levels ofconfidence about their financial decision-making and moneymanagement skills.

Considering the financial crisis, perhaps being savers ratherthan investors hasn’t been such a bad thing.

Still, retirement plans require some level of investing, and survey respondents mostoften cited having enough money to maintain their current lifestylein retirement as a top financial priority.

Among African-Americans offered an employer-sponsored retirementplan, 74 percent contribute to it. This compares with 85 percent ofthe overall population of employees with access to such plans. Inaddition, respondents were less likely to say that they ownedfinancial and insurance products.

African-Americans are also caregivers, with one out of fivereporting that they provided care to a loved one—and they’redetermined not to become a financial burden to their lovedones.

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That was one of the three top priorities cited by respondents.That could come from personal experience, since almost two thirdsof caregiver respondents (among both African-Americans and thegeneral population) said they provide some or all financial supportto those they care for. A quarter provide all the support for theirloved ones.

But African American respondents exhibit a greater commitment tocaregiving, reporting that they spend on average 20.7 hours a weekon caregiving tasks, compared with 14.6 hours among the generalpopulation.

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