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Most Americans are stressed about the possibility of running out of money in retirement. In this clip from the latest episode of Decoding Retirement, BlackRock senior advisor on retirement Anne Ackerley joins host Robert Powell to share her thoughts on mortality credits and guaranteed retirement income.

Powell asks whether or not there is a need to educate people on mortality credits. In response, Ackerley says that it's most important to talk about guaranteed income. She notes that in BlackRock's Read on Retirement survey, "80% of people we talked to said that the thought that they might run [out of] money in retirement was causing them mental health issues today." Educating people on mortality credits can help them understand that guaranteed retirement income is possible.

Having guaranteed sources of income in retirement also allows people to spend more earlier in their retirement. Ackerley says, "If I know I'm [going to] get these checks, if I know I'm not [going to] be able to outlive my money, I might feel better today about spending money."

She notes that according to a BlackRock study, "80% of people still had a lot of assets when they were 80 in retirement." People hold back their spending in retirement because they're concerned about medical expenses in addition to outliving their money.

"I think having some form of secure income within the 401(k) could really help people feel less stress about it," says Ackerley.

Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement is hosted by Robert Powell and produced by Zach Faulds and Alexander Frangeskides.

Find more episodes of Decoding Retirement here.

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This post was written by Meredith Lawrence.