The UK has climbed to 14th place in Natixis Investment Managers’ 2024 Global Retirement Index (GRI), its highest position ever.
The UK’s progress is being driven by a significant improvement in the Health Retirement sub-index, with the country’s score rising by 3% over the last year.
Switzerland leads the world with an 82% score, followed by Norway with 81%. Iceland remains third place, despite decreases in key categories. Luxembourg now leads the Health sub-index, while Ireland leads the Finances in Retirement category.
People are increasingly feeling the need to self-fund their retirement and according to Natixis IM’s poll, the proportion of people who believe they must rely on personal savings rather than public and private pensions has increased from 67% to 81% since 2015. Furthermore, 19% of investors believe that even $1 million in savings will be insufficient for retirement.
Increasing interest rates, persistent inflation, expanding public debt, and the need for realistic retirement planning are among the major issues facing seniors today.
Natixis IM head of Northern Europe and MEACA Andrew Benton says: “The past few years have seen some big shifts that impact our finances and plans for the future: the ongoing transition from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions, rising public debt bills, short term shocks like Covid, and geopolitical tensions firing up inflation, all of which drive anxiety about financial futures for individuals.
“Whilst retirement security has improved in the UK, individuals are increasingly taking their retirement security into their own hands, given the changing market backdrop. In light of this shift, financial services providers need to be more proactive in helping people to save more – to and through retirement – by offering better support and solutions that are tailored to today’s environment and individual retirement needs, including access to both public and private markets if we are to help prevent a retirement crisis down the line.”
