Are you smart enough to retire?

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Retirement planning is hard, and most people struggle to understand the fundamentals, according to a new report by the American College of Financial Services, a nonprofit that educates financial advisers. Only 20 per cent of people in or near retirement who were surveyed by the group passed a quiz about the basics of retirement planning.

The group quizzed more than 1,000 people in America, ages 60 to 75, who had at least $100,000 in assets. The goal was to get a sense of how informed people are as they approach retirement, says Dave Littell, a director at The American College. "In some ways we expected people wouldn't do that great on the test," Littell says. "We were surprised at just how bad they did."

People were most stumped by questions about the strategies that could help their money last longer in retirement. For instance, more people said they would get the biggest boost to their retirement income by saving more when they were close to retirement, but in reality pushing back retirement by a few years or delaying Social Security would have a bigger impact, Littell says. (Savings set aside at that stage don't have as much time to benefit from investment growth, he says.)

Some of the 38 questions asked in the quiz were far from elementary, hitting on complicated retirement products like annuities. Some were more focused on investing topics like interest rate risk and mutual fund costs. (Do you know what a PE ratio is? Or what is the average lifetime payout for a 65-year-old male getting an immediate income annuity?) Some of the terminology may have tripped people up, Littell says. "Jargon is a challenge," he says, adding that it can be tough to avoid such complicated terms.

But the confusion also highlighted another risk - people may be over confident about their retirement security. While most people struggled to answer the questions on retirement strategy, more than half, or 55 per cent, said they felt they were prepared to meet their income needs in retirement. Ninety-one per cent said they were moderately confident they would have a secure retirement.

The quiz also highlighted one thing that people often get wrong that could increase their chances of running out of money in retirement - how long they are likely to live. Most people underestimate their longevity, putting them at risk of drawing down their savings too soon, collecting benefits too early and taking a lump-sum payment from a pension plan when they might be better off with an annuity, Koenig says.