In a break with tradition, young people are taking a more active interest in their superannuation with the 30-49 year old group being the most concerned about planning for retirement, according to the latest quarterly MLC Wealth Sentiment Survey.

Both men and women in this age group rated their concern about having adequate funds for retirement at 73%, with people over 50 and 18-29 year olds having an equal level of concern (64%).

The survey of over 2,000 Australians also revealed Queenslanders were most concerned about super adequacy, missing investment opportunities and changes to superannuation rules. People from Western Australia and Tasmania were the least concerned.

Those who have children are more concerned about having enough for retirement compared to those who don’t have children. The more children the family has, the more concerns there are.

In a special report: MLC Retirement Survey also released today, just one in 10 respondents had a well considered plan in the event of major financial setbacks such as unemployment or ill health, with 72% of people failing to consider setbacks in their retirement plans, up 3% from the previous quarter.

Investors continue to take a conservative approach to risk with superannuation, paying down debts and cash the preferred investment options.

Key highlights:

• Women continue to be the most concerned about finances, with 62% of women fearing they will have insufficient funds at retirement compared to 55% of men
• Males hold more diversified portfolios across asset classes, particularly shares
• 11.3% of Western Australians expect to have more than enough money to retire on, compared to 4% for the rest of the population
• Queenslanders feel the least prepared with over 50% having far from enough money at retirement
• Over the next three months, SA/NT and TAS residents have the strongest intention to divest shares and bonds while investing more into super

For further analysis download the full report.

• Quarterly Australian Wealth Sentiment Survey – March 2014 (PDF, 408KB)
• Special Report: MLC Retirement Survey – March 2014 (PDF, 253KB)