Nonretired Americans with household incomes that average more than $50,000 assumes they won't be able to retire until age 59.

More than a third of affluent retirees with children and grandchildren are helping to support them financially, as are 29% of all retirees. Also, nearly a quarter of all retirees whose parents are alive are helping them financially.

Fully 48% of the affluent who aren't retired as well as of all people surveyed who aren't retired believe they have to work part time in retirement. Only 23% of well-off retirees and 16% of all retirees polled are working today.

Affluent nonretirees estimate they'll need only 53% of their pre-retirement income to support their retirement lifestyles. But well-off retirees say they actually require fully 71

Cash Flow Needs-Retirement plan assets have ballooned in recent years. For the average employee or self-employed individual, retirement assets consisting of pension plans, 401(k) and 403(b) plans, individual retirement accounts, tax deferred annuities, and the like, make up an increasingly large, if not dominate, portion of his or her net worth. Therefore, it has become increasingly important for planners to try to permanently optimize those characteristics that make investment in such plans so attractive. When reviewing retirement asset, however, advisors need to consider overriding questions: "What type of cash flow is needed for his or her living expenses?" Before we can even approach the analysis of the retirement assets and distribution options, we need to dip into their retirement accounts sooner rather than later to maintain any semblance of their preretirement lifestyles in retirement. So the question is, do fancy tax strategies really help these folks? Maybe, but then again, maybe not.