At a glance
- The report also shows 85% of employers keep offering retirement benefits and 30% of workers age 55 and older name retirement planning as their biggest financial stressor.
- Automatic plan feature adoption is 57% for auto-enrollment and 33% for auto-escalation.
- Among employer guidance offerings, 81% offer self-service financial planning tools and 68% provide one-on-one financial planning appointments.
Only 28% of employees believe their current savings strategy will let them reach their goals, according to Gallagher's 2026 US Financial Benchmarks Report. 401(k) Specialist reported the findings.
The report also shows 85% of employers keep offering retirement benefits and 30% of workers age 55 and older name retirement planning as their biggest financial stressor.
Automatic plan feature adoption is 57% for auto-enrollment and 33% for auto-escalation. The report says those features are playing a larger role in participant outcomes as SECURE 2.0 makes auto-enrollment and auto-escalation mandatory for most new retirement plans.
Among employer guidance offerings, 81% offer self-service financial planning tools and 68% provide one-on-one financial planning appointments. Another 64% offer retirement plan enrollment and investment-selection advice, and 48% offer managed-accounts advice.
“Financial wellbeing is no longer viewed as a stand-alone benefit,” said John Tournet, US CEO of Gallagher's Benefits & HR Consulting Division, adding that employers are looking at how benefits, guidance and support programs work together. The report notes that individualized guidance is hard to deliver across large, diverse workforces and points to digital platforms, analytics and AI-enabled tools as ways to extend it.
Reported by the Plans & Sponsors desk from 401(k) Specialist and Gallagher 2026 US Financial Benchmarks Report. Published . Corrections