Participants in company-sponsored retirement plans are losing some of the optimism they expressed as recently as May.

They are not quite as confident, for example, that they are saving enough money for retirement. Some 34% of those surveyed in August expressed concern about the adequacy of their retirement savings, compared with 31% for those surveyed in May.

Similarly, individuals are less confident now than they were three months that they will have enough income to live comfortably during retirement. The level of belief in a secure retirement fell two percentage points to 61% in August.

This erosion of confidence is having an impact on the risk tolerance and, thus, investment selections of affluent individuals who are saving for retirement. The percentage who are willing to incur significant risk to increase their investment returns fell sharply, from 62% in May to 35% in August. And the percentage of risk-averse individuals who want a guaranteed rate of return on their investments climbed from 46% to 50%.

---