October 2025

Latest Retirement Living Standards show costs for Minimum retiree needs have fallen, while Moderate and Comfortable Standards see modest rises

By Pensions UK The latest update of the PLSA's Retirement Living Standards (RLS) shows a decrease in the cost of the Minimum retirement lifestyle, down to £21,600 per year for a two-person household, due to the impact of lower energy prices and changes in the public's expectations for this standard. Meanwhile, the Moderate and Comfortable standards have risen modestly, reflecting the impact of inflation across many expenditure categories offset by decreases in energy costs. This year, the cost of a Minimum Retirement...

2025 Global Retirement Index

By Dave Goodsell Norway has regained the top position in the 2025 Natixis Global Retirement Index, driven by its strong performance in health outcomes, low unemployment and high-income equality. Ireland surges to second place, thanks to improvements in inflation and an economic environment that supports retirement security. Since its launch in 2012, the Natixis Global Retirement Index has offered a comparative assessment of retirement security in 44 developed countries. The index evaluated 18 key indicators grouped into four subindexes: Finances in...

August 2025

IORPs in Focus Report 2024

By European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority This report outlines the latest market developments in the occupational pensions sector, with a focus on IORPs and their cross-border arrangements. A factsheet summarizing the key findings accompanies the publication, providing a visual overview of the main trends in Europe's IORP sector for interested readers. Get the report here

July 2025

The Pensions Review: final recommendations

By Jonathan Cribb, Carl Emmerson, Paul Johnson, Heidi Karjalainen & Laurence O’Brien This final report of the Pensions Review, a major project launched in April 2023 by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in partnership with abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, examines the main risks to today’s working-age individuals in the UK pension system and sets out policy proposals primarily focused on improving outcomes for future generations of retirees. This report does further analysis and draws on the large number of reports...

June 2025

The At Retirement Reckoning: Barnett Waddingham’s investigation into the UK’s retirement landscape

By Barnett Waddingham The British pensions industry is, once again, at a critical juncture. It seems every provider, regulator, and adviser is watching with bated breath as the time bomb of UK retirement saving ticks closer to detonation. And with every new day, the likely ripple effects of the impending disaster get bigger. The past 14 years of Conservative rule saw the pension landscape shift notably. The introduction of auto-enrolment in 2012 successfully widened the UK’s saving base and helped tackle...

Planning: The Missing Link to Retirement Security. Retirement Survey & Insights Report 2024

By Goldman Sachs Michael Moran, a pension strategist in Goldman Sachs Asset Management, explains how the current macro environment is changing the retirement picture for both savers and retirees. Mike and his team are out with a new report that describes what they see as a missing link to retirement security. Get the report here

PAYG Pensions in a Post-Growth Economy: A Case Study Analysis

By Christine Corlet Walker, Dario Leoni & Tim Jackson Ecological economists have increasingly warned that continual reliance on economic growth poses existential threats to environmental sustainability. A post-growth economy would instead prioritise environmental and societal prosperity over economic accumulation. But this transition demands a careful scrutiny of ‘growth dependencies’. One area in which this reliance on growth is potentially profound – particularly in the light of aging populations – is pension systems. In this paper, we therefore begin to address...

LGBTQ+ Americans Face Retirement Inequities

By Pension Rights Center Pride Month is observed each June to mark the 1969 Stonewall Uprising that sparked the LGBTQ+  rights movement in the United States. Celebrations are centered around building community, recognizing the progress made towards equality, and honoring those who have made that progress possible. But Pride Month is also an opportunity to reflect on the work yet to be done, including the inequities that persist when it comes to the retirement income security of LGBTQ+ older adults. According...

May 2025

Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States: An Update Including the 2022 Wave

By Moritz Kuhn & José-Victor Ríos-Rull We provide a comprehensive overview of earnings, income and wealth inequality based on the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances from the United States. We document the current state of inequality and its evolution over the last three decades organizing the data along key demographic dimensions including age, education, and marital status. The 2022 data reveal that wealth remains highly concentrated, with the top 1% holding 35% of total wealth down from a peak of...

Does Education Improve Financial Outcomes? Evidence from Stock Market and Retirement Accounts in Türkiye

By Abdurrahman Aydemir & Yarsan Ersan We examine the causal effect of education on financial outcomes related to stock markets and retirement savings, leveraging a major compulsory school reform and a unique data set covering the universe of investors in Türkiye. The estimates show no effects on participation rates, portfolio composition, or return performance. Moreover, education does not appear to influence behavioral biases or heuristics in retirement plans. The reform leads to a 3% increase in pension savings for females,...