Is it better to not plan?

Consumer Reports surveyed 19,000 subscribers ages 55 to 75 about their retirement finances. Their findings are not pretty.

However, pre-retirees who had done more planning reported worse losses, on average, than those who hadn’t planned. Retirement planning strategies encourage investors to diversify beyond safe vehicles such as bonds and CDs. Respondents who had planned were less conservative, in general than those who didn’t. Before the meltdown, this strategy was much more beneficial according to Consumer Reports’ 2007 Retirement Survey. But it proved punishing during the unusually severe market downturn of recent months.

What's more, those who used financial planners did no better than those who managed on their own.