Communication about finances between family, spouses still is a problem for retirement planning. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Families contemplating the leaving or receiving of an inheritance, and partners contemplating retirement after the death of one partner, still have a lot of room for improvement around communicating their intentions or securing a partner's future.

So says a Hearts & Wallets study, which highlights the fact that while people leaving an inheritance might want to talk about it more than they have already, beneficiaries can be reluctant to raise the topic for fear of seeming greedy—although they'd like to know more about what lies ahead.

More people are expecting to get or to leave an inheritance, or in fact have already gotten one. Some have already had discussions about wealth transfers—whether via inheritance or partner planning so that the death of a partner does not leave the survivor financially stranded. But many more have not, or have not addressed enough of the questions surrounding the issue to answer the concerns of beneficiaries.

The good news is that employers can step in to be a big help in facilitating such conversations—thus cutting employee stress levels and improving well-being.

While it's unlikely that employers themselves will take that step directly, making sure that plan providers and financial wellness programs do so can go a long way toward relieving employees' minds.

In fact, the study finds, "Retirement planning together cuts in half the worry about a spouse/partner not being able to carry on if their partner predeceases them." And considering the financial stress so many workers are under these days, that is no small thing.

Particularly when it comes to retirement, workers are more worried about how their partners will manage without them than how they themselves might manage if left on their own.

Concerns over investing were less affected by the gender of the survey respondents than their breadwinner status—breadwinners were more engaged in investing than non-breadwinning partners.

Employers who make sure that workers include their partners in planning for retirement are taking a giant step in preparing employees.

The report urges employers to "[m]ake sure advice and guidance experiences engage the spouse/partner, which is harder to do through the workplace where the focus is on the participant, but critical for the well-being of the household."

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