BOSTON, September 22, 2026 – The United States fell to 24th in this year’s Global Retirement Index (GRI) from Natixis Investment Managers (Natixis IM), down from 21st in 2025 and 14th a decade ago. The U.S. lost ground across three of the four factors measured by the Index, including an eight-place decline in Finances in Retirement to 18th.
The decline comes as the traditional three-pillar retirement model – government benefits, employer-sponsored plans and personal savings – faces growing pressure from an aging population, changing employment patterns, inflation and public debt. Through these pressures, individuals increasingly recognize that more of the responsibility for retirement will fall on them. According to Natixis IM’s Individual Investor Survey*, 81% of American investors saying it is increasingly their responsibility to fund retirement themselves, up from 63% a decade ago.
“Workers are confronting the reality that the current retirement system was built for a different era,” said Dave Goodsell, Executive Director of Natixis IM’s Center for Investor Insight. “An aging population is putting greater strain on public retirement systems, debt levels are adding pressure to future benefits, and inflation is making it harder for individuals to save. The system needs to evolve for the realities of how people work, save and retire today.”
Developed with CoreData Research, the Global Retirement Index evaluates retirement security across 44 countries using 18 indicators grouped into four sub-indices: Finances in Retirement, Material Wellbeing, Health and Quality of Life.
Traditional sources of retirement security are under pressure
The U.S. decline is being driven in part by renewed financial pressures. Its Finances in Retirement ranking fell eight places to 18th as renewed price pressures weigh on inflation and government indebtedness remained entrenched. Three-quarters (76%) of U.S. investors believe mounting public debt will ultimately result in reduced retirement benefits, while 77% expect growing deficits to translate into higher taxes.
Inflation is simultaneously making it harder for individuals to fill the gap themselves. Forty-one percent of U.S. investors say inflation is killing their retirement dreams, while financial advisors identify underestimating inflation as one of the most significant risks to retirement security.
Access to employer-sponsored savings also remains uneven as employment patterns move away from the stable, full-time careers around which many retirement systems were designed.
According to Pew, more than 56 million U.S. private-sector workers lack access to a workplace retirement plan, with workers at small businesses particularly likely to be uncovered.1
Healthcare adds another major source of uncertainty. The U.S. spends more per person on healthcare than any other country in the Index yet ranks just 25th in the Health sub-index. Thirty-five percent of U.S. investors fear going broke paying for healthcare and long-term care costs in retirement, compared with 24% globally.
For some Americans, those costs are beginning to change not only how they retire but where. More than 700,000 Americans now receive Social Security benefits abroad, up more than 60% from 431,000 two decades ago.2
Bringing retirement planning and policy into the 21st century
As individuals assume more responsibility for retirement, both financial planning and retirement policy are being forced to adapt. Advisors see clear gaps between investor expectations and what long-term planning may require, while policymakers are focused on expanding access, increasing participation and helping individuals build sufficient assets over time.
One of the biggest retirement-planning mistakes is unrealistic expectations, cited by 52% of advisors in Natixis IM’s Financial Professional Survey.** Advisors say their clients expect longterm returns of 8.9% above inflation on average, compared with the 7.4% advisors say is realistic. Advisors also point to underestimating inflation (34%) and not understanding the tax implications of investments (39%) as key risks. Those concerns come as 41% of U.S. investors say inflation is already threatening their dreams of retirement and 77% worry growing government deficits will ultimately lead to higher taxes.
At the same time, policymakers are trying to improve the foundation on which individuals save. The GRI report identifies access, automation and accumulation as three priorities for modernizing retirement systems. In the U.S., SECURE 2.0 has expanded eligibility for certain long-term part-time workers and introduced automatic enrollment and escalation provisions for certain new plans, while more than 20 states have enacted or implemented automated retirement savings programs, reaching 1.19 million funded accounts and $2.89 billion in assets by early 2026.3
The next challenge is helping individuals make those assets work harder. Almost half (46%) of U.S. advisors say people who approach retirement are underappreciating opportunities private assets present for income, while 43% see their long-term nature makes them a good fit for retirement saving. Sixty percent also expect a pathway to open for defined contribution plans to incorporate private assets over the next 12 months. Yet 71% of U.S. investors say private markets are riskier than public markets, highlighting a gap between how advisors see the retirement investment toolkit evolving and how investors perceive the asset class.
“Modernizing retirement means giving individuals a better chance to succeed,” said Liana Magner, Head of Institutional and Retirement in the US at Natixis Investment Managers. “That means expanding access, making it easier to save consistently and helping investors build realistic expectations around the returns, risks and income they will need over a longer retirement.”
