More than half of retirees regret poor planning

While two-thirds of retirees are living the lifestyle they hoped for, more than half wish they had planned differently in their final working years, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The poll, conducted by mutual fund company Fidelity Investments, also found that workers in their final year before retirement were for the most part financially unprepared.

Two-thirds of those polled said they had not completed a budget for their retirement years, while three out of four did not have an asset allocation strategy to manage their income while retired.

"Retirement is a time in life that millions of Americans look forward to, but the actual transition from saving for retirement to living off of those savings can be worrisome and more complex than expected," Steve Deschenes, executive vice president of Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services Company, the country's largest provider of 401(k) plans, said.

Fidelity surveyed 755 retirees from large companies within three years of having retired and 749 employees at big firms with one year to go before retirement.

The survey also showed that employer guidance in planning for retirement was generally underused, as 77 percent of respondents said they had not taken advantage of it.

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"Workers demonstrate a clear need for more assistance as they prepare to retire," Deschenes said. "Employers can address this need by taking a more active role in helping their employees successfully navigate the retirement transition."

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In a 2004 poll to gauge retirement confidence, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 58 percent of workers reported saving for retirement last year, a number that has been mostly stagnant since 2001.

Fidelity, with $1.1 trillion in assets under management, is the world's largest mutual fund company.