Half of retirees never chose an income strategy

51 percent of current retirees in Schroders' 2026 US Retirement Survey report having no specific strategy for generating income from their savings, even as the same poll's 1,500 US investors aged 30 to 79 put the monthly income they'd need at $5,094, up from $5,032 in 2025.

Among retirees who do have one, the strategies are account mechanics — systematic withdrawals from retirement accounts at 26 percent, certificates of deposit and dividend-producing stocks or mutual funds at 20 percent apiece — and no annuity or other insured income product appears anywhere on the list. The same survey, released in September 2026, finds that 58 percent of retirees have no idea how long their savings will last and almost two-thirds wish they had done more planning before leaving the workforce.

Claiming behavior has the same shape: nearly half of non-retired respondents plan to file for Social Security before age 67, the full retirement age for anyone born in 1960 or later, and only 10 percent intend to wait until 70, when monthly benefits are maximized. The reasons are cash-flow and confidence — 45 percent need the money sooner for regular income, 43 percent want access as quickly as possible, and 40 percent worry Social Security may eventually run short or stop making payments. These are respondents who, by the survey's account, understand how delayed claiming works.

Deb Boyden, who heads US defined contribution at Schroders, said careful planning helps take the emotion out of the claiming decision and that knowing income, spending needs, and whether investments match them is what produces clarity on how to maximize benefits. Her case is not hard to make here: 56 percent of non-retired respondents describe the prospect of no longer receiving a regular paycheck as concerning, and 20 percent describe it as terrifying.

As this publication has argued, the decumulation default and the planning layer decide which income products reach participants, and this survey lands on that side. Insurers and recordkeepers are building guaranteed-income menus for a cohort that has largely not made the decision a menu would serve: half of today's retirees never picked an income method, and the ones who did chose withdrawal schedules and deposit accounts. A shelf placed in front of that population is distribution waiting on a decision, not solving one.

The intervention this data calls for does not require a product: a projected monthly income figure on the participant statement, in front of every participant. Watch whether plan sponsors make that purchase before they make room for another shelf slot.