TIAA also found a lack of awareness of annuities as products that could provide a retirement income stream. Just one-in-10 Americans have purchased an annuity, according to TIAA. Two-thirds of the survey respondents, 66 percent, say they are unfamiliar with annuities, and only 23 percent of the respondents said they have a favorable opinion of them.
That unawareness comes through when TIAA’s respondents were asked about where their retirement income would come from—annuities fell behind defined benefit plan payments, retirement account withdrawals and Social Security as a plan’s income source.
The survey was conducted by telephone among a random sample of 1,000 U.S. adults in June.