Nearly one-third of American workers said the pandemic delayed their plans for retirement, according to a new survey by the Indexed Annuity Leadership Council. “The pandemic has impacted the way Americans are planning, saving, and living in retirement and created a financially insecure environment,” writes Jim Poolman, the council’s executive director. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic impact will have the same type of lasting influence on Americans’ financial behavior as the Great Recession has, writes Poolman, who has twice served as North Dakota’s insurance commissioner. As an example, the new survey found that younger age groups were more likely to have heard of fixed indexed annuities than their older counterparts — which, when you think about it, is counterintuitive. “We may see this risk aversion among younger cohorts translate to financial behavior in the future,” he wrote. I took note of the article, which the council put out as a press release this week on BusinessWire, because I was unaware of the group until now. According to its website, it was founded in 2011. Its member companies are all Iowa-based, including American Equity and its Eagle Life subsidiary, as well as Athene and Sammons Financial Group affiliates Midland National and North American Co. The consortium of life insurance companies “is committed to educating consumers by providing factual information about the use of fixed indexed annuities to help people prepare for retirement,” it says on its website.