Amid what many have identified as a crisis in retirement readiness, Americans with access to defined contribution plans feel more confident about their retirements than ever before according to one long-running survey of plan participants.

In “Inside the Minds of Plan Participants,” a study released in October by Alliance Bernstein, a survey of more than 1,000 retirement plan participants found confidence in retirement readiness at an all-time high earlier this year.

When the survey was fielded in May, 47 percent of respondents felt confident about their ability to retire, up from 32 percent of respondents in last year’s survey and 25 percent of respondents in 2016.

Since Alliance Bernstein started surveying participants in 2005, the proportion of respondents feeling confident about their retirement chances has exceeded 40 percent just one time before—in 2007, ahead of the global financial crisis. Two years later in 2009, retirement confidence hit an all-time low, when 18 percent of the survey respondents said they were ready to retire.

Jennifer DeLong, head of defined contribution at Alliance Bernstein, argued that the confidence could be due to economic and market conditions.

“The survey was fielded back in May before we hit the recent volatility; the economy has been really good, capital markets are doing well and unemployment is at low levels,” said DeLong. “It’s great that people are more confident, but is that a false sense of confidence?”

Despite that feeling of reassurance, many plan participants voiced doubts about the timing of their retirement. Two-fifths of those in the survey said they would either work part time in retirement or delay their retirement date altogether. Almost half, 46 percent, said the reason for their confidence or lack thereof was that they had some retirement savings but needed to save more.

As it turns out, many retirees regret not saving more when they were fully employed. From its survey, Alliance Bernstein broke out a group of 109 plan participants who had already retired, asking them what they would do differently if they had the opportunity to plan for their retirement again. Forty-seven percent said they would save more for retirement from their monthly earnings.

The next largest regret among the retirees was that they had not maintained their health. Twenty-seven percent of retired plan participants wished they had taken better care of themselves while preparing for retirement.

This year, Alliance Bernstein’s survey included an eight-question quiz to determine financial literacy—over two-thirds of the respondents failed the quiz.

“If you don’t understand the basics around saving and investing, it might create a false sense of confidence,” said DeLong. “Perhaps you would be less confident if you understood your particular picture or had a sense of what you were doing. There could be a correlation between low levels of literacy and high levels of confidence.”

While most plan participants are not counting on Social Security to fund their expenses, a sizable portion believe that it will be sufficient: 41 percent of survey respondents said they would end up being able to fund their retirement needs from the program.

Alliance Bernstein also asked participants their feelings about socially responsible investing. Ninety percent said it’s important for the investment options in their plans to reflect their core values, and 71 percent said they would be likely to invest in socially responsible funds if offered within a plan.

“We’re seeing the sponsor community and plan advisors as well just starting to think about this and educate themselves, but I think that process will speed up if there is more demand from participants,” said DeLong.

The participants’ lack of financial literacy was on display when they were asked about target-date funds, with more than one-third of investors in those funds believing they were guaranteed not to lose money and that they would be invested 100 percent in cash at retirement. More than two-fifths of the target-date fund users believed the vehicles guaranteed a certain level of retirement income and that they were insured by the FDIC.

From its survey, Alliance Bernstein identified three archetypes of retirement plan participants: Capable, confident investors; eager, young, unaware participants; and cautious, confident savers.

Capable, confident investors scored highly on the financial literacy portion of the survey and expressed high levels of confidence.

Eager, young, unaware participants had high enthusiasm for planning and saving and high levels of confidence, but scored low on the financial literacy portion of the survey. They were the most likely to describe themselves as spenders, rather than savers, and to report not following a financial plan.

“The eager, young and unaware certainly have the longest runway to retirement, enabling the help of an advisor to have the most impact,” said DeLong. “Though it can be hard for them to think about retirement, they have the opportunity to do something about it now.”

Conservative, cautious savers had both low confidence and lower levels of investment knowledge, but also reported being diligent savers—Alliance Bernstein’s report argues that these participants “actually know more than they may realize.”

For the report, Alliance Bernstein conducted an online survey of 1,002 employees enrolled in retirement plans in May 2018, with 893 of the sample being full-time employees, and 109 being already retired plan participants.