2025 Retirement Market Outlook

Our 2025 U.S. Retirement Market Outlook highlights many of the key challenges and opportunities in today’s defined contribution retirement plan landscape. And we offer some valuable insights on how to move forward.

Hello. I’m Michael Davis, head of Global Retirement Strategy at T. Rowe Price.

We’re pleased to present our 2025 U.S. Retirement Market Outlook, “Retirement industry is at a crossroads.”

In this year’s edition, we offer insights on three key areas that we expect to gain attention in the defined contribution retirement plan marketplace:

• First, evolving target date and default investment options;
• Second, increasing adoption of retirement income solutions; and
• Third, the growing momentum for emergency savings programs.

Additionally, we look ahead at some key legislative and regulatory themes that are likely to impact the retirement landscape in the coming years.

Qualified default investment alternatives, or QDIAs, transformed retirement plan investing, with target date strategies gaining prominence due in part to their automated, age-based asset allocation.

More recently, there’s growing interest for these strategies to incorporate blend investment approaches. These blend strategies combine both active and passive elements to help enhance cost efficiency while leveraging the potential benefits of active security selection.

We’re also seeing greater interest in collective investment trusts, or CITs, an increasingly popular investment vehicle that often provides lower costs and greater investment flexibility to target date investors.

And personalized managed accounts are getting more traction, especially as more participants approach retirement.

Additionally, we have seen a flurry of new retirement income products over the past year.

Overall data shows increasing interest among plan sponsors in retaining retirees in their retirement plans postretirement. And many are proactively inquiring about the landscape of retirement income products and services. 

Consultants and advisors will continue to be essential in helping plan sponsors select products and services best suited to their plans.

Finally, there’s growing recognition of the importance of overall financial wellness, and emergency savings is a central element of that discussion.

Provisions in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 have bolstered employer-sponsored emergency savings programs, introducing new solutions to participants.

And we expect to see more conversations on the adoption both of in-plan and out-of-plan emergency savings solutions.

Looking ahead, we outline some key legislative and regulatory themes that could impact the retirement landscape in the coming years, including tax reform, enhancements in SECURE 2.0, litigation reform, and more.

We’re excited to present our 2025 U.S. Retirement Market Outlook, and I encourage you to download the full report at troweprice.com for more detailed information on these and other topics.

Thank you.