If access creates opportunity, automation turns opportunity into participation.
One of the lessons policymakers have learned over the past two decades is that retirement success is often determined less by investment decisions than by human behavior. Automation addresses this reality by making action the default.
Auto-enrollment and auto-escalation help remove many of the decisions that prevent people from saving consistently. The approach recognizes a simple truth: When retirement participation requires action, many people wait. When it happens automatically, more people save.
The success of automatic enrollment programs in countries such as the United Kingdom has demonstrated how powerful this approach can be. Policymakers are now applying similar thinking across retirement systems, extending automation beyond workers to employers, plan operations, and administrative functions.
The result is a retirement system designed to work with human behavior rather than against it.
Dig deeper into global retirement security in 2026
Explore how automatic enrollment is expanding retirement participation around the world, how contribution escalation can improve long-term outcomes, and how automation is streamlining employer funding and plan administration.
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About the 2026 Global Retirement Index
The Global Retirement Index (GRI) is a multi-dimensional index developed by Natixis Investment Managers and CoreData Research to examine the factors driving retirement security and to provide a comparison tool for best practices in retirement policy.
The index includes International Monetary Fund (IMF) advanced economies, members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). The researchers calculated a mean score in each category and combined the category scores for a final overall ranking of the 44 nations studied.
The views and opinions expressed may change based on market and other conditions. This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. There can be no assurance that developments will transpire as forecasted.
Actual results may vary.
All investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. No investment strategy or risk management technique can guarantee return or eliminate risk in all market environments. Investment risk exists with equity, fixed income, and alternative investments. There is no assurance that any investment will meet its performance objectives or that losses will be avoided.
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