Most financial advisors say the majority of their clients are saving enough to fund their retirement, but that still leaves a substantial minority of pre-retirees who are waiting to save more in the future and they will probably fall short.

Those are some of the conclusions found in the FA 2014 Retirement Survey of nearly 1,800 advisors. This is the third in a series of stories about the results.

“I’ve been in this business for 25 years and you always get clients who say they will save more for retirement next week, but that never happens,” says Courtney Livingston, an advisor with Thrivent Financial in Watertown, S.D., who was a survey respondent.

Livingston, who serves people with a wide range of financial assets, says he tries to tell clients to save just a little more each week so they will have enough when they reach retirement age.

“I’m concerned with the middle-class people because it is costing so much to live today, even when they are pretty frugal, that it is hard to save,” he says. He deals with many modest wage earners and says less than 40 percent of his clients are on track for saving for retirement.

He is among the 10.5 percent of advisors who say less than 40 percent of their clients age 50 to 65 are on track to meet their retirement goals. The largest group of advisors, 24.4 percent, say 70 percent to 80 percent of their clients are going to meet their goals with their current savings rate.

Approximately the same number of advisors (17 percent each) say 45 percent to 60 percent or 60 percent to 70 percent of their clients are saving in a way that will let them meet their goals.

Approximately 11 percent of advisors have 90 percent or more of their clients saving in line with their retirement goals.

For those clients who are not saving enough, education is the key, according to Marilyn Suey, a financial planner with Yerba Buena Financial Partners LLC in San Ramon, Calif.

“A lot of information is available in the general press and we try to make people listen to us. We want to make sure people understand, particularly those under 40 years of age, that they are going to have a phenomenal longevity,” she says. “Even if they work until they are 70, they will probably have to support themselves until they are 100.”

Suey, who has been in the financial industry for more than 10 years, says most of her clients have at least $250,000 in investable assets, and 60 percent to 70 percent are saving enough to meet their retirement goals. The firm serves mostly business owners, entrepreneurs and independent women.

“We have a few clients whose parents grew up in the depression and they still have the mindset that they have to save everything. They have not transitioned to the point where they can spend a little,” Suey says. But that does not apply to most clients.

For those who are spending too much, she tries to paint a vivid picture showing them they may run out of money during their retirement.

Like the largest group of advisors (40 percent), most of Carol Alexander’s clients are saving between 10 percent and 15 percent of their income for retirement. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of her clients are saving enough to meet their retirement goals.

The next largest group of advisors, 34.5 percent, has clients who are saving between 5 percent and 10 percent. Smaller groups have clients saving between 15 percent and 20 percent (16.5 percent of advisors), less than 5 percent (6.3 percent of advisors) and more than 25 percent (2.6 percent of advisors).

Alexander, a planner with Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. in Oklahoma City, says she uses Personal Financial Ratios to help clients determine their saving needs. The software allows clients to compare where they are in saving money and retiring debt compared to where they need to be for their age to reach their goals.

“We use a holistic approach to make sure people are saving enough,” says Alexander.  “One of the problems is young people do not save enough because they do not realize how quickly retirement comes.”

Another financial planner, Cynthia D. Allen, is among the lucky advisors who have most of her clients saving 25 percent or more for retirement and 70 percent to 80 percent are on track to meet their retirement goals. The recent market upheavals have generated a renewed interest in saving, she says.

“There is a greater caution on the part of our clients and a desire to know they can fund their lifestyles when they retire,” says Allen, who is a vice president with RBC Wealth Management in Hunt Valley, Md. Most RBC clients have at least $500,000 in investable assets, although Allen says she will not turn down anyone seriously interested in receiving advice.

Gale K. Zumpano is another advisor who says she has a good client base since she is associated with the Alabama Credit Union. She has been in the financial business for 32 years and now has many clients who are part of the faculty at the University of Alabama, as well as others who are not employed by the university and have 401(k) plans.

“I think what financial advisors do is important emotionally as well as financially,” says Zumpano, who is an advisor with Members Financial Services. The key to getting people to change their behavior when they are not saving sufficiently is to get them to come to that decision themselves. “We do not make judgments; we have them reach the conclusion themselves, then they are more likely to make changes.”