Plan on working past age 65? If so, you better have a backup plan.

Consider: More than one in three workers (36%) say they plan to retire after age 65, according to a study conducted by Greenwald & Associations and published this week by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). And that figure is up threefold from1991,when it was 11%. What's more, one in 10 workerssaythey never plan to retire.

The bad news. Workers' best-laid plans and expectations don't always come to fruition. That's because one in two Americans who planned on working longer found themselves retiring unexpectedly, citing — according to EBRI's study — such hardships as health problems or disability (60%), changes at their company, such as downsizing or closure (27%), and having to care for a spouse or another family member (22%). Others said changes in the skills required for their job (10%) or other work-related reasons (22%) played a role.

So, given that you might be among the one in two Americans who plan to retireafterage 65 but might not, what steps should you take now?

Plan for all possible outcomes. If you don't have a financial plan in place, do so now. That plan should cover all aspects of your finances, from budgets to insurance to taxes to investments to estate planning and retirement planning.

Next, consider the risks that you might face in retirement and whether you have plans in place to manage those risks. The Society of Actuaries has on its website many of the risks you might face in retirement and how to deal with them.

Read: Managing Post-Retirement Risks — A Guide to Retirement Planning.

Set aside cash. At a minimum, you should set aside three months of living expenses, but consider setting aside even more to cover out-of-pocket expensesfromlosses that are not insured, are insured but subject to a deductible or for which reimbursement may be delayed, says Dave Yeske, managing director of Yeske Buie in San Francisco.

"Building up a decent reserve, six to nine months or even more, can give one so much more flexibility, whether to job hunt, retool skills or both," says Yeske. Consider increasing your reserves if your job is insecure or involves highly variable income.

Buy enough insurance. Given that most people leave the workforce because of health problems or disability, you should check your current employmentbenefitpackage. "If there are options for increasing disability benefits, do it," says Yeske.

And if you don't have disability insurance through work, buy some. Yes, individual disability insurance policies can seem expensive and may create budget issues, but you might be able to purchase a policy through your professional association or trade group, says Yeske.

How much should you buy? "Our policy is to tell clients to buy as much disability insurance as the company will issue because it will never give you enough," says Yeske.

One "trick" to consider, says Yeske, is to make sure that your premiums are being paid with after-tax dollars because this makes the benefits, if and when received, tax-free, effectively increasing your benefit.

Others agree about the importance of having enough insurance in place before the unexpected happens. "Setting up appropriate risk management is one of the earliest priorities of financial planning," says Steve O'Hara, a principal with CLA Financial Advisors in Northbrook, Ill. "If I retire early because my health changes, I may no longer be able to get life insurance or long-term care insurance at that point in life."

O'Hara says the Affordable Care Act is often "emotionally derided," but it does provide insurability for people's health, so that issue is not a concern. "The cost, of course, is a concern, but accessibility (pre-Medicare) is not," he says.

Don't forget your spouse if you have to leave workforce unexpectedly. They might have employer-sponsored health insurance or you might have to purchase a family plan.

Plan on saving even more. "Almost no one who is forced to retire earlier than they planned or hoped tocomplainsthat they wish they had not saved so much," says O'Hara. "They don't bemoan choosing to add $300 per month to their 401(k) instead of buying tickets to a Grateful Deadreunion,or the new set of golf clubs."

Saving more and spending less, says O'Hara, are meaningless plaudits in the absence of goals that make them come alive. "Through planning, if someone says they have a goal to be financially independent at 60 but hope to work to 70, and they have spelled out that $4,000 per month is what they need, and they prioritize their different spending between needs and wants, they have a better chance to have a viable plan," he says. "Then retiring early, because their job disappeared, or they didn't want to move away to keep the job, or theirmom,or spouse needs full-time care and the time is now for them to do it, will be something between an inconvenience and an opportunity, and not a disaster."

Keep your skills current: Even in your 50s, your human capital — your current and future earnings — is often your biggest asset, both in terms of how every additional year of work is an additional opportunity to save and also another year that you don't have to dip into existing savings, says Yeske. So, make sure you have the skills, knowledge and experience to stay employed or get re-employed. Yeske recommends attending a community college as your first line of defense.

Consider, too, using social media, such as LinkedIn, to help you stay abreast of opportunities.

Plan your estate. If you don't you have your estate planning documents, prepare them now. Those documents include wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, health care proxy and the like, says O'Hara.

"A trust might allow someone else to execute their wishes for money and care clearly, and without delay, where the lack of such a plan could put way more scrutiny and delay squarely into the mix," says O'Hara.

Frame your future differently. O'Hara recommends the following exercise to help plan for the unexpected. Ask yourself: "What you would do differently, right now, for the next five years, if you knew in advance that you would get an unexpected message five years from now that your work life was over? Would you save more? Would you save less and travel more? Would you spend more on clothing and shoes?"

Get professional help. Instead of trying to do everything yourself and perhaps doing it poorly, consider hiring a financial adviser to create financial and contingency plans. "Most people who are close enough to retirement would do quite well to engage a financial planner to do a retirement fitness evaluation," says O'Hara. "Spend the needed time to discuss what matters, what you have, what you earn and what you want, and get an evaluation of the adequacy of your plan. And then, as you might after a doctor visit that pointed out needs for amendments, follow up with the changes. The financial planning profession is well-equipped to make directional recommendations, and then to check in on a regular enough basis to help them stay on track."

For the record. According to the EBRI study, here's the percent breakdown of the actual ages at which workers retired: before age 60, 36%; ages 60-64, 29%; age 65, 9%; ages 66-69, 8%; age 70 or older, 6%. Read " The 2015 Retirement Confidence Survey: Having a Retirement Savings Plan a Key Factor in Americans' Retirement Confidence ."

Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, contributes regularly to USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch and teaches at Boston University.