Hart cautioned, however, that these results should not be confused with a solid prediction for investors' future reactions. Retirement Needs Investors overall are increasingly relying on their personal investments to fund their retirements, rather than pension plans or Social Security. With another 24 percent currently saying they will rely equally on these different sources, a total of 65 percent now see their investments as a key source of retirement income. Investors Are Taking Control Of Their Investments Investors are also increasingly interested in managing their own investments. There was a real generation gap on this question, with Generation X and Baby Boomers preferring the self-management model, and older investors feeling more comfortable with the trusted advisor approach.
Men strongly prefer self-management, while women are evenly divided.
The survey shows there has also been a large shift in where investors go to get information. While the printed word remains the single most common source of financial information, investors' use of local newspapers for their primary source of information has slipped from 58 percent in 1985 to 20 percent today. The Wall Street Journal remains key, with 38 percent of investors citing it as their primary source of information. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.