The modestly positive score of +10 indicates that middle-class financial resilience is still reasonably strong relative to historical norms, but that the pace of improvements is slowing, mostly due to a drop in the Resource Resilience Index.
Overlays middle-class resource resilience with the ability to afford modest luxuries without trading off the essentials.
Financial pressure makes planning harder, but it also makes protection more essential. ACLI advocates for solutions that help middle-class households prepare for the unexpected, protect what they have built and retire with greater confidence. Through long-term guarantees, risk protection and retirement income solutions, life insurers help families move from uncertainty to financial certainty.
Measures middle-class households’ ability to handle unexpected expenses and sustain a quality of life, and the ability to save and live well in retirement.
Everyone deserves the certainty of living each day to their best and knowing there’s a plan in place when life takes an unexpected turn. While no one can predict what the future will hold, life insurers make sure everyone can prepare for it. Retirement readiness is a key element of this preparedness and marker of middle-class financial resilience.
Surveys middle-class households on how they understand their financial security.
When cost pressures are high, America’s middle-class relies on financial protection that provides them with peace of mind and helps protect them in moments of financial shock. Life insurers fill this gap with protection that addresses their top concerns, from guaranteed income that can be used for daily essentials to supplemental benefits and disability insurance that can help cover medical costs not covered by major medical insurance.
This gap underscores the need for greater awareness and planning around long-term care costs – 70% of U.S. adults turning 65 will need some form of long-term care (LTC) in our lifetimes. An unexpected need for this care can wipe out retirement savings and impact the income and financial security of middle-class households. Life insurers help protect against this through LTC insurance.
Helping Americans build financial security is what life insurers do. In 2024, life insurers paid out $110 billion in annuity benefits, $89 billion in life insurance benefits and $10 billion in long-term care claims — delivering guarantees when middle-class households need them most. As long-term care needs can wipe out retirement savings and strain families, life insurers are part of the solution to help households build financial resilience, and the index informs that goal.
