In casual conversation, Someone told me that they were great with their investments because they had someone they trust at a big firm taking care of all that. I said terrific, how is it invested? The look they gave me was the look most people do, confusion, misunderstanding and discomfort. If I already knew what big company it was at, doesn’t that mean I know where and how it is invested?

If someone I loved was in Mercy Hospital, that would tell you one thing. But if you wanted to know more because you were close to your loved one, you would ask who the doctor is and what they were doing to them and what the diagnosis was. Yet, an established financial firm seems to be the cover for many financial questions.

There is so much more. You want to keep your money close to you and understand. You are the only one responsible, no matter who is managing the money for you. You have given them the power to manage it but still your job is to be sure they are doing what you want. And what feeds your needs and goals.

According to Financial Planning magazine and Schroders research, you are not alone:

Half of people in their mid-40s to late 50s saving for retirement don’t know how their money is divvied up between stocks, bonds and cash, according to a survey released on Thursday by Schroders.

That was true even for respondents between the ages of 60 and 67, a time when retirement is near, if not imminent. When broken out by gender, 39% of men didn’t know how their retirement funds were divvied up, compared with 59% for women. And while 35% of men said they had done a “very good” amount of planning and preparation for retirement and were fully on track, just 17% of women said the same.