Surveys Find Retirement Not Likely for Many Americans

With the economy still slumping, a new survey finds many Americans expect to work until the day they die.

In a survey by The Lifeline Program, an insurance settlement provider, more than 50% of Americans 65-years-old and over said they believed they would work until they became too ill or died. The Lifeline Program president and CEO Scott Page said these circumstances can be avoided by creating a retirement plan. “The first thing they should look at is how they want to retire, where they want to retire,” said Page. Since many Americans use their house as a savings account, Page suggests considering a reverse mortgage, or cashing in on life insurance (known as a life settlement) to help them retire. “People traditionally have viewed life insurance as a liability, something they pay a premium for and the only way to get any cash out of it is to surrender it with the life insurance company.  A life settlement can pay up to eight to 10 times more than what the insurance company will pay you if you simply surrender it as a cash value,” said Page. With the statistics coming in at such an alarming rate Page says, “I’m hoping that Americans are going to use this as a wakeup call.”

Watch the video above for the full interview.