Despite continued growth in pension assets, individuals may not be saving enough to secure adequate retirement income. Pension assets increased in most OECD countries in 2025, driven by higher contributions and positive investment returns, but significant differences remain across countries. Contribution gaps persist in nearly all OECD countries, with additional contribution needs varying across population groups. Yet only 19 of the 38 OECD countries have mandatory or quasi-mandatory pension plans, while participation in voluntary plans remains limited. In almost half of the 19 OECD countries where only voluntary plans are available, fewer than half of working-age individuals participate. Policy measures addressing barriers to saving, including financial advice and taxation, and improving pension fund investment and risk management, can help boost contributions to asset-backed pension plans and improve retirement income adequacy.
Pension assets continued to grow in OECD countries in 2025, driven by higher contributions and positive investment returns.
Pension assets grew in 36 out of 38 OECD countries in 2025. On aggregate, they grew by 11.3%, sustaining the long-term trend of the last two decades, and reached USD 78 trillion at end-2025 (including USD 7.3 trillion in reserves of public pay-as-you-go schemes), equivalent to 106% of GDP.
The aggregate growth in assets hides large differences across countries. On the one hand, eight OECD countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States) have assets relative to GDP above 100%. On the other hand, 17 OECD countries have pension assets below 20% of GDP, and 9 between 20 and 50%.
Pension assets grow when contributions and investment income exceed pension payments. Since the early 2000s, contributions to asset-backed pensions increased in all reporting OECD countries but one and in all reporting non-OECD jurisdictions. Policies that expand access to and participation in asset-backed pensions help sustain this growth. Positive investment returns, supported by policies to improve portfolio allocations, together with the compounding of returns, have also contributed to the growth in pension assets. Over the past 10 years, long term real investment returns were positive in 24 of 31 reporting OECD countries.
Despite the significant growth of pension assets, nearly all OECD countries face a contribution gap.
In all but one OECD country, certain categories of workers need to complement their mandatory pensions with voluntary contributions to achieve adequate retirement income. The contribution gap is at least 10% of earnings for male employees earning the average wage in 17 of the 41 countries covered. Women face a larger gap than men in 17 countries, and the self-employed face a larger gap than employees in 31 countries. In half of the countries, contribution gaps are largest for high earners, while in 12 countries low earners face the greatest additional contribution needs.
Behavioural biases, affordability concerns and other barriers prevent individuals from contributing enough to reach their targets. Policies that could help address these barriers and steer individuals towards higher contribution levels include increasing mandatory contributions, encouraging voluntary employer contributions, nudging individuals towards higher contributions, providing financial incentives, providing information about contribution processes and expected retirement income outcomes, and offering design features that address certain needs of individuals.
When identifying contribution gaps in the population, policymakers need to assess the trade‑offs between the different policies, ensure that other design features of asset-backed pension plans support or reduce the contribution effort, and monitor outcomes to adjust policies when necessary.
Improving financial advice for retirement could help individuals to save more for retirement.
Financial advice can help individuals prepare for retirement by encouraging them to save more, take appropriate investment risk and navigate the complicated decision of how to spend their retirement savings.
Registration and qualification requirements, duty of care standards, disclosure requirements and restrictions around remuneration structures have all improved outcomes for those receiving financial advice. However, these measures require careful design to ensure their effectiveness. Harmonising requirements across distribution channels and markets can limit consumer confusion and promote a level playing field, though it is also necessary to consider the specific context and need for which advice is given. Clear definitions are needed to delineate the boundary between guidance and advice and to provide assurance as to which regulatory requirements will apply. Measures to improve financial advice also require considering their potential impact on access to advice, as they can make it less accessible by increasing costs.
There are alternatives to advice when measures to ensure quality may impact access. Well-selected default investment strategies can improve returns over the long term. Personalised guidance can be useful for questions of limited scope or complexity. Distribution requirements can make providers responsible for ensuring that their products are appropriate for their target markets.
Pension funds are increasingly integrating risks affecting the long-term sustainability of their portfolios into their investment and risk management processes.
The growth of pension assets and the extent to which retirement savings can help individuals reach retirement income objectives also depend on investment returns. Risks to the sustainability of portfolios can therefore have significant implications for the long-term returns of pension funds. As a result, pension funds are increasingly integrating these risks into their investment decisions and processes.
Regulation remains the most influential factor shaping how pension funds as well as insurance companies as asset owners and investors, integrate risks to the sustainability of their portfolios into their investment strategies. In 41 out of 53 jurisdictions assessed, pension or insurance investors are required to integrate sustainability risks into their investment and risk management processes. Financial materiality remains the primary lens through which pension and insurance investors evaluate risks to sustainability. For pension funds in particular, interpretations of fiduciary duty play an important role in guiding this approach. Member and client expectations can also influence priorities, as can competitive pressures and market leadership by large asset owners, with major investors shaping market norms and cascading expectations to external managers and smaller institutions.
Integration approaches generally combine top-down objectives with bottom-up implementation, with institutional and governance frameworks adapting to support the decision-making processes. Materiality assessments are not standardised across institutions and often reflect differences in investor size, data access and internal analytical capabilities. Integration practices are largely shaped by the specific characteristics of each portfolio, by asset class mandates, and by the tools and information available to investment teams. Data quality, comparability and coverage remain significant barriers, particularly for smaller markets and private assets.
The taxation of death-related payments should not undermine the primary objective of asset-backed pension plans, which is to finance income in retirement.
Asset-backed pension plans generally benefit from more favourable tax treatment than other savings vehicles to encourage individuals to save for retirement. However, appropriate incentives are needed to encourage individuals to use their pension savings to finance their retirement rather than to transfer wealth to their heirs in a fiscally advantageous way. There should be tax consistency before and after death to avoid situations where retirement savings receive more favourable treatment when used for bequests or survivor protection than when used for retirement income provision. The tax treatment of death-related payments should align with policy objectives, such as protecting dependants, preserving equity among taxpayers and beneficiaries, limiting tax planning opportunities or optimising tax revenues. It should also be coherent with the inheritance tax system, where one exists, and consider efficiency and equity implications for savers, beneficiaries and tax revenues.