Families of active-duty military personnel are concerned about possible changes to the military retirement system and are reassessing retirement options, investment plans and their spending, according to a new survey.

The survey was commissioned by First Command Financial Services Inc., a Texas-based company that began 53 years ago by offering financial services to military families. The findings indicate nervousness by those families about the sluggish economy and the possible changes in a military retirement system that has been essentially unchanged for decades, the company said. That’s even though senior U.S. military officials have said that changes won’t be made soon and that they would be “grandfathered” in so that those already in service or receiving retirement benefits would not be affected.

Any significant pullback of consumer spending by military families could be a factor for businesses in the communities where Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employees and their dependents live. Updated statistics on how much discretionary spending those families contribute aren’t available, but it could pose challenges for businesses already coping with uneasy customers in an economy heavily dependent on consumer spending, said Robert Premus, a Wright State University economist.

“It would be at least a small jolt, in itself, on our local economy,” Premus said. “The economy can absorb it, without too much change, but there’s so much of that going on.”

Wright-Patterson, with its $5 billion annual economic impact and status as Ohio’s largest-single site employer, packs an economic wallop in the region. That includes an annual military payroll of $557.3 million, on top of $1.58 billion for civilian employees.

In July, the Defense Business Board — an advisory panel to the Defense Department — proposed changes to the military retirement system. Those included converting to a 401(k)-style system under which full retirement pay wouldn’t be paid until ages 57 to 60; authorizing the services to make variable annual retirement contributions depending on changing retention and skill retirements, and vesting retirement benefits after 10 years of service.

Military retirement benefits are more generous and expensive than those offered by the private sector, the Defense Business Board said. Retirement payout after 20 years of military service has no comparison in the private sector, the board said.

Costs of the current military retirement system are escalating and, if left unchanged, will undermine the government’s ability to pay for future warfighting capabilities, the board said.

The First Command-commissioned survey found that just 37 percent of middle-class military families are extremely or very confident that their financial situations will improve over the next year, and just 34 percent are extremely or very confident in their ability to retire comfortably. Both those results were lower than findings of a similar survey earlier this year, First Command said.

Two of five service members are changing to more conservative investments, one in five said they would look at different retirement options, and many families are working harder to pay down debt and reduce spending, the survey found.

Scott Coale, a local defense contractor employee who retired as the Air Force Research Laboratory’s vice commander in 2007 at the rank of colonel after 26 years in uniform, said he can understand the nervousness. Military personnel were promised a certain level of retirement security and plan on receiving it, he said.

The First Command polls survey about 530 adults, aged 25 to 70, each month. The polls have an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.