Policy uncertainty retirement planning worries savers and advisers

Policy uncertainty retirement planning worries are no longer an abstract headache for older Americans: a 2025 Greenwald Research survey found some savers are delaying retirement, building bigger cash buffers and shifting toward safer investments.

Alicia H. Munnell, a MarketWatch columnist and senior adviser at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, wrote that unpredictable government decisions can make an already tricky retirement plan harder to trust. She pointed to possible changes in Social Security, Medicare, taxes and federal debt as risks that can hit household finances directly.

The Greenwald Research survey covered 1,443 people ages 45 to 79 with more than $100,000 in investable assets. Among respondents who had not yet retired, 21% said they had chosen to push back retirement. Across the full group, 28% increased emergency savings and 33% moved into more conservative investments, according to Munnell.

How is policy uncertainty affecting retirement planning?

Policy uncertainty affects retirement planning when households cannot be sure what rules, benefits or taxes will look like in the years ahead. If Social Security benefits, Medicare costs, tax rates, interest rates or the broader economy change, retirees may need to spend less, save more or invest differently.

Munnell wrote that financial advisers would seem like an obvious line of defense for older Americans trying to handle those risks. To test that, she said she and Gal Wettstein partnered with Jackson National Life Insurance to commission a companion survey of advisers about the rise in policy risk between January and July 2025.

The adviser survey showed a split picture. According to results cited by Munnell, 47% of advisers said the economy had strengthened since the start of 2025, while 25% said it had weakened.

That optimism came with a long worry list. More than 60% of advisers said they were worried or very worried about a stock-market decline and a reduction in Social Security benefits. An even larger share, 87%, expressed concern about the high level of federal debt, according to the survey results.

Many advisers were also telling clients to take protective steps. Munnell reported that 21% suggested reducing spending, 49% recommended investment changes, 43% pointed clients toward financial products meant to hedge investment losses, and 42% suggested reallocating resources, including Roth conversions, based on expectations of higher taxes later.

The caution showed up in advisers’ own money habits, too. Asked about their personal investments, 29% said protecting assets had become more important since 2024, while 4% said it had become less important. The remaining two-thirds said their views had not changed, according to Munnell.

Are advisers changing retirement investors’ outlooks?

Munnell wrote that the adviser responses suggested broad confidence in the economy paired with concern about specific government and market risks. A statistical analysis cited by her found that having an adviser did not affect investors’ views of their investment strategies or their financial futures.

She argued that advisers at the time of the survey may have been focused heavily on the stock market, where strength can make wider risks feel less urgent. Munnell also raised newer concerns, including the war with Iran and oil prices, the U.S. fiscal position, and questions about artificial intelligence, the stock market and jobs.

The bottom line from the surveys is brisk and uncomfortable: older savers are already reacting to policy risk, while advisers appear torn between confidence in current markets and unease about the rules and economics that could shape retirement security.

This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch.