Description: This article focuses on retirement planning and knowledge and how the SOA Research Institute has added to our understanding of what consumers know and how they plan. It is the first of a series that offer insight into where consumers are today, identifies gaps in understanding, planning and managing retirement issues, helps us understand how consumers act at various life stages, highlights consumer information collected by the SOA Research Institute and provides some recommendations for working with different stakeholders to improve retirement planning. This article identifies the components of the research and how they fit together and provides a summary of major findings with regard to gaps in knowledge and planning. The research includes focus groups and in-depth interview, consumer surveys, a conjoint study, a study of future issues by Futurists, and more.