A decade-long slide in Canada's retirement security ranking signals growing pressure on advisors to close the gap between client wealth and retirement readiness
Canada dropped one place to 21st in the 2026 Global Retirement Index (GRI) from Natixis Investment Managers, continuing a decline that has seen the country fall from 10th place a decade ago.
The ranking, compiled with CoreData Research across 44 countries using 18 indicators, reflects a year in which a solid improvement in the Health sub-index was not enough to offset deterioration in Finances in Retirement and Material Wellbeing, the two categories most directly relevant to the clients Canadian advisors serve.
The results arrive at a moment of genuine strain for retirement planning in Canada. According to a 2026 survey by BMO Financial Group, the average Canadian now believes they need $1.7 million to retire comfortably, up from $1.54 million just one year prior — yet 36% believe they are unlikely to reach that target. That disconnect is the defining challenge advisors face entering the second half of the decade.
Where Canada lost ground
The most significant decline came in the Finances in Retirement sub-index, where Canada dropped four places to 15th despite a broadly flat overall score of 68%. The bank non-performing loans indicator was a key drag, falling nine percentage points in score; a reflection of Canada's major banks setting aside growing provisions for potential loan losses amid rising household delinquencies.
Old-age dependency and inflation also edged down marginally, while government indebtedness remained a persistent weak point, ranking 38th in this edition. Rising household debt and loan delinquencies among clients approaching retirement, combined with inflation that continues to erode purchasing power, point to a cohort that may be more financially fragile than their nominal net worth suggests.
Research from the C.D. Howe Institute published in June 2026 found that while the net worth of Canadian households aged 55 to 64 rose approximately 91% in inflation-adjusted terms between 1999 and 2023, most of that wealth is concentrated in housing, an asset that is difficult to convert into reliable retirement income.
Canadian advisors are increasingly navigating this illiquid wealth challenge with clients particularly as defined benefit coverage continues to erode.
Material Wellbeing also deteriorated, with Canada dropping two places to 30th and recording a one-percentage-point score decline to 54%. Income equality was the primary driver, falling eight places to 25th on a five-percentage-point score retreat.
Rising food and housing costs are widening the gap between households in ways that compound retirement risk - clients without a private pension or substantial non-housing assets face structurally different retirements than those with employer-sponsored plans, and the index data makes that divergence visible.
The bright spot and what it means in practice
Canada's strongest result came in the Health sub-index, where the country climbed four places to 13th, its best sub-index performance of the year, driven by improvements in health expenditure per capita.
Life expectancy, however, slipped one place to 24th on a three-percentage-point score decline, a reminder that longevity planning remains an underappreciated risk in client conversations.
The gap between improving health infrastructure and softening life expectancy scores has direct implications for retirement income planning. Clients may live longer than historical averages suggest, and advisors should be factoring in extended retirement horizons when structuring withdrawal strategies.
A 2025 HOOPP Canadian Retirement Survey found that 59% of non-retired Canadians do not believe they will ever be able to retire given their financial situation, a figure that underscores the scale of the planning gap advisors are being asked to address.
The global context advisors should know
While Canada's domestic picture has its own pressures, the broader GRI report frames the retirement challenge in terms that apply equally here and globally, 78% of investors surveyed by Natixis in 2025 said it is increasingly their responsibility alone to fund retirement, up from 67% a decade earlier.
In Canada, the shift away from defined benefit plans has accelerated that dynamic. According to a 2026 IG Wealth Management Retirement Study cited by Wealth Professional, fewer than half of non-retired Canadians (48%) have any form of workplace pension, and even among those who do, a quarter are unaware of how their plan works.
The GRI's global analysis also identifies three policy priorities that are reshaping retirement systems worldwide - access, automation and adequacy - and Canada's own trajectory maps onto each.
On access, the challenge of reaching gig workers, part-time employees and the self-employed mirrors global patterns. On automation, the case for expanding default savings mechanisms is well established. On adequacy, the question of whether Canadians are accumulating assets that can genuinely sustain them - rather than paper wealth concentrated in illiquid real estate - is becoming the central issue of the decade.
"Modernizing retirement means giving individuals a better chance to succeed," said Liana Magner, Head of Institutional and Retirement in the US at Natixis Investment Managers. "That means expanding access, making it easier to save consistently and helping investors build realistic expectations around the returns, risks and income they will need over a longer retirement."
What the ranking tells advisors to do differently
Canada's slide from 10th to 21st over a decade is not simply a macroeconomic story - it is an advisory one.
The widening of income inequality, the concentration of wealth in housing, and the continued erosion of defined benefit coverage are all factors that advisors can directly influence through client conversations about diversified savings, realistic return expectations and income-focused portfolio construction.
The Natixis data is also a useful calibration tool. Among financial advisors surveyed globally for the 2026 GRI report, the top two pieces of retirement advice were to save early and save often, and to remember that savings need to last. Both are simple ideas and both, as the index shows, are increasingly hard to execute in a system under structural stress.
The 2026 Natixis Global Retirement Index was developed with CoreData Research and evaluates retirement security across 44 countries using 18 indicators grouped into four sub-indices: Finances in Retirement, Material Wellbeing, Health and Quality of Life. The Financial Advisors survey was conducted between March and May 2026 across 2,950 respondents in 23 countries. The Individual Investor survey was conducted in February and March 2025 across 7,050 respondents in 21 countries.
