Indians making progress in retirement planning: Survey

Indians are slowly making progress in retirement planning, even though the country is under-protected in terms of retirement corpus, according to a survey by Max Life Insurance.

The India Retirement Index Study (IRIS), conducted in partnership with data analytics company KANTAR, showed a significant upward movement to 47 from 44.

The online survey was conducted among 2,093 respondents across 28 cities in India. The index mapped respondents' views on health, finance, and emotion.

Max Life Managing Director & CEO Prashant Tripathy said people have started giving importance to health and are resorting to health insurance and periodic check-ups, but very few are focusing on physical activity or wellness.

As per the survey, 44 per cent of the respondents have health insurance, and 58 per cent have undergone health check-ups in the last three years.

"People in India have been putting far greater weight on health. Zone-wise, eastern region and Tier 2 cities are making good progress in terms of health awareness," Tripathy said.

In terms of financial planning, the survey found that 90 per cent of the people felt that they didn't start savings early and 40 per cent of respondents felt their savings planning would last for 10 years post-retirement.

The survey also found that 40 per cent of people have not started investing for retirement.

"India is slowly making progress in terms of retirement planning, but is under-protected in terms of retirement corpus," Tripathy said, adding that there were gaps in terms of financial preparedness.