Many of the executives at some of the nation's hottest small companies doubt that they will get Social Security benefits when it comes time for them to retire. What's more, they fear they don't have enough salted away on their own.

A study of 446 chief executives at expanding U.S. businesses shows that 55% of those under age 50 are convinced that their Social Security contributions are going to naught. The under-50 bunch constitute 61% of those surveyed. Older CEOs are more confident that the U.S. government retirement plan will still be around when they stop working -- 76% of those over 50 think they'll get something out of it. The survey was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in July.

The CEOs are also worried about their employees. Only 31% of the company heads surveyed think all their present employees will get something from the government, and 17% think most will get something.

What are they doing about it? Eighty-nine percent of the companies offer retirement plans to their employees, and an additional 7% say they plan to do so by next summer. Still, having a plan and being able to retire comfortably are two different things. Forty-one percent of the CEOs at companies that do have plans said they don't think they have invested enough. On average, they say they've saved only about half of what they aimed to save. If the captains of the country's fastest-growing companies have saved only half of what they need to retire, what's the outlook for the rest of us?

By Julia Lichtblau in New York
julia_lichtblau@businessweek.com