Our clients at Global Atlantic released the results of their 2025 retirement outlook survey earlier this spring, and more recently shared insights that unveil surprising differences in retirement priorities between financial advisors and their clients.
The results highlight investors’ growing interest in lifetime income and a focus on protection and limiting downside risk. They also reveal an opportunity for financial professionals to strengthen their connections with their clients by focusing on what’s most important to investors.
Key findings include the following:
- Nearly nine out of 10 investors — but only two-thirds of advisors — prioritize investments that provide steady income stream in retirement
- Over 80% of investors — but less than 50% of advisors — view guaranteed income in retirement in addition to pensions and/or Social Security as important
- 75% of investors report discussing protection strategies with their advisor, but only 54% feel adequately protected from market downturns
Global Atlantic published insights in a press release and a results overview aimed at financial professionals.
These results were pulled from the Global Atlantic 2025 Retirement Outlook Survey, which we summarized earlier this spring. We conducted this survey of 1,009 investors age 55–75 with $250K to $2M in investable assets who currently work with a financial professional, as well as 514 financial professionals. This allowed us to compare the perceptions of the two groups. This is our third year conducting this study for Global Atlantic. You can find summaries of the 2024 results here and the 2023 results here. The addition of the second sample of advisors was new this year.
