Our clients at Global Atlantic recently released the results of their 2026 retirement outlook survey. A new addition to this annual study was comparisons between the mindset of First Wave Gen Xers (ages 55–60) and Boomers (ages 61–75).
Some of our biggest takeaways include the following:
- Creating a retirement income plan is top-of-mind for most consumers.
- More consumers are now focused on protecting assets, as opposed to accumulating, a number that is on the rise year over year.
- Relatedly, rising health care costs were the top retirement concern for both consumers and financial professionals, with six in 10 respondents extremely or very concerned
- “Pension envy” is driving anxiety for investors, particularly among Gen Xers (56% of Gen X consumers without pensions reported “pension envy,” compared with 44% of Boomers). For financial professionals, there is clear opportunity to frame and develop useful solutions that address this anxiety.
Global Atlantic published insights in a press release and coverage included this write-up in Barron’s.
For this wave of the study, respondents included 1,011 consumers with $250K to $2M in investable assets, ages 55 to 75 who work with a financial professional, and 505 financial professionals. This is our fourth year conducting this study for Global Atlantic. You can find summaries of the 2025 results here, the 2024 results here and the 2023 results here. The addition of the second sample of advisors was new last year and provides beneficial insights into sometimes differing perceptions and opinions between investors and the financial professionals they work with.
