The bleak retirement picture for many Americans may result in Social Security benefits being eliminated or reduced for the wealthy, say many advisors in a recent survey by Financial Advisor magazine.

The retirement income shortfall, some respondents say, might also lead to seniors being forced to make it on their own because the government would be unable or unwilling to do anything to help or to start a new welfare system to boost Social Security.

Financial Advisor magazine surveyed nearly 1,800 advisors on retirement issues in the FA 2014 Retirement Survey. This is the second in a series of stories about the survey results.

Advisors were asked what would happen if within the next 10 to 15 years at least 40 percent of retirees cannot survive on Social Security and their savings. The largest group, 35 percent, feels Social Security benefits will be increased for middle- and lower-income recipients, while the system will be means-tested for wealthy Americans.

“A lot of people will retire later in life or continue to do part-time work in retirement,” says Kathleen Kee of Confluence Wealth Management LLC in Portland, Ore. “Others will have to do some belt tightening and many will rely on the equity in their homes as part of their nest egg.”

Those measures plus an increase in Social Security benefits would help some retirees get by. But middle-income Americans need financial advice they are not receiving now, says Kee. “Not a lot of advisors work with the middle market. We are trying to address that as an industry.”

Irey Stone, a financial advisor with Edward Jones in Flower Mound, Tex., agrees Social Security benefits will be increased for some if a large percentage of retirees are finding it impossible to survive. Stone says the situation will be helped if more people have financial advisors.

“Everyone needs a financial advisor,” he says. “Most people think they can understand finances and manage on their own, but they could use help.”

Anothe solution might be that the government steps in to provide indigent seniors with a welfare payment on top of Social Security, according to 20.5 percent of those surveyed.

“People are going to run out of money. As pensions dry up, they are going to have to fall back on the government. The next 10 or 15 years are going to be very interesting and could be very tragic,” says Marilyn Suey, a financial advisor with Yerba Buena Financial Partners LLC in San Ramon, Calif. “Reverse mortgages are going to be one answer for those who own a home.”

Meanwhile, some advisors are trying to help clients maximize their Social Security benefits. “We are holding Social Security workshops to help clients maximize what they get,” explains Courtney Livingston, a financial associate with Trivent Financial in Watertown, S.D.

The next largest group, 17.5 percent of those surveyed, thinks some other solution will be devised or nothing will be done. “Leaders will say the government should step in, but that they do not have the money,” says Peter Nerone of Great American Advisors in Cincinnati, Ohio, who has been in the financial industry for more than 15 years as an advisor to small-employer retirement plans.

He feels retiring employees should take their retirement money and buy an annuity or other product that will provide a lifetime payment.

“The Department of Labor needs to engage the public and the financial industry in addressing this need,” he says. “But once people realize there is no external help, they will have to find ways to make their own resources do more for them.”

Another advisor who asked not to be quoted by name says the government will not do anything because government leaders are incompetent and unable to deal with the crisis.

Others (15.5 percent) think the government will not act because such interference is un-American.

“We are coming to realize we cannot afford the entitlement programs we already have. To increase them will drive us to a welfare state, and I don’t think that is going to happen,” says Jim Butler, president of Butler Associates Financial Planners Inc., in St. Louis, Mo.

Only 12 percent of advisors think the government will impose a mandatory defined contribution retirement system similar to the one that exists in Australia.

Some advisors feel the defined contribution plans that have become the backbone of retirement savings for many Americans are part of what have gotten retirees into trouble. Anthony J.  Pascazio of SF Advisors LLC in Basking Ridge, N.J., who advises retirement plan sponsors, says a few employers have gone back to defined benefit plans because they are actually cheaper in the long run for the employer and provide the employee with more security in retirement.