Retirement Savings: Europeans Are Worried, but No One Is Talking to Them About It
Four out of five Europeans under the age of 65 with less than 250,000 euros in assets do not feel prepared for retirement. Yet fewer than one in two are aware of individual retirement savings options, and financial advisors almost never bring up the topic. A study by the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) conducted in four countries points to a problem with supply rather than demand.
A promotion, an inheritance, a birth. These are the moments when people would be willing to listen to someone talk about retirement, according to Europeans. The problem is that no one is stepping up. On a continent facing, according to the firm, a major challenge in pension funding, BCG surveyed more than 6,000 people in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, including a core sample of 1,000 households per country selected based on income or financial assets. The picture that emerges boils down to one contradiction: widespread anxiety, genuine demand, and a market that isn’t meeting that demand.
Among those under 65 with fewer than 250,000 euros in assets, 80% do not feel well prepared for retirement. Above this asset threshold, the proportion remains at 49%. Having a quarter of a million set aside therefore reassures only one in two Europeans. Within the core target group, only 55% are aware of individual retirement savings plans, and 30% have one. France falls below both averages, with 48% awareness and 26% ownership, even though the PER (retirement savings plan) has been in place there since the 2019 Pacte Act.
Demand surges as soon as people are informed
The most striking finding comes next. Once informed about these products, 74% of those under 65 in the core target group express interest and say they want to increase, on average, the portion of their savings set aside for retirement by 10 percentage points. The appetite is there; it just needs to be nurtured. 94% say they are open to being approached by an advisor about their retirement planning at key moments in their lives. The starting point is the same for younger people: in France, 90% of 18- to 34-year-olds say they want to save money each month when school starts again, and half aim to save more than 100 euros a month, according to a Selvitys survey for Plum. There’s no guarantee that this money will go toward retirement. Nor is there any indication that it has been offered to them.
However, financial advisors rarely initiate these discussions. In France, they are the ones to start the conversation in only 17% of cases; more than four out of five respondents had to take the initiative themselves. The obstacle, therefore, lies more in the schedules of banks and insurers than in the minds of savers. When a relationship does exist, it often falls short for a specific reason: the perceived lack of impartiality is the top reason for dissatisfaction with advisors, cited by 40% of respondents, far ahead of a lack of clarity or the inability to listen. Savers suspect their bankers of pushing their own product line far more than they criticize them for failing to explain things clearly.
AI is filling the void left by
In this void, a new point of contact has taken root. 32% of people under 35 already use AI (artificial intelligence) to plan for retirement, while only 30% still turn to a bank advisor. For the generation with the most time ahead of them, the chatbot has thus surpassed the bank branch. This finding aligns with the results of a Viavoice survey for Crédit Agricole d’Île-de-France published this week: 31% of young people in the Île-de-France region aged 16 to 30 turn to artificial intelligence when they need financial advice, and only 36% reach out to their bank when facing difficulties—even though 58% trust their bank.
According to BCG, the key takeaway for insurers and asset managers is this: they must transition from being savings providers to trusted retirement partners—capable of reaching out to clients at key moments in their lives rather than waiting for them to walk through the door. The study was co-authored by Lionel Corre, an associate director at the firm’s Paris office. The findings are worth reading in reverse: if four out of five clients had to initiate the conversation themselves, it means that only one-fifth of sales opportunities were seized by those whose job it is to do so.
The French context puts these figures into perspective. The debate as the new political year begins centers on the deindexation of pensions as part of the 2027 state and Social Security budgets—in other words, on pension increases for some retirees that fall short of inflation. Every euro that the pay-as-you-go system fails to provide will have to come from somewhere else. Europeans seem to have understood this. They are waiting for an explanation of how it will work.
