The UK is witnessing a “slow-motion train crash” for financial security in retirement, J.P. Morgan chief market strategist, Karen Ward, has suggested.

Speaking at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) Investment Conference 2025, Ward said there was "no way" her generation would get the government support it thinks it will in retirement.

"This isn't a crisis 30 years away; this is imminent," she added.

Ward argued that the "ugly and inconvenient" truth of the retirement crisis was a worsening demographic problem.

"The number of people over 80 has increased dramatically in the past twenty years, with the state providing the average 80-year-old £35,000 per year, rising to almost £50,000 for over 90s."

"There is no way that will continue to happen," she added.

Echoing Ward's concerns, University of Manchester social gerontology professor, Debora Price, claimed the UK was at a "pivotal" moment for financial security in retirement while speaking at the Association of British Insurers (ABI) conference on savings, adequacy, and longevity last month.

Price warned that the retirement landscape faced a series of complex challenges, including falling fertility rates, stalling life expectancy gains, an increase in ill health, and changing inter-generational financial relationships.

Commenting on how a potential "train crash" might be avoided, Ward praised the UK's "better savings culture” since the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We used to be a chronically low-saving nation, but our ability to start engaging in this problem now is quite good," she continued.

"We have to get people saving as much as they can right now and thinking about their future today."

However, a recent report from the Pensions Policy Institute revealed that "unique financial pressures" are threatening Gen Z's (ages 18-29) retirement prospects.

The report, The Concerns of Gen Z, found that despite "universal benefits" from automatic enrolment (AE) in workplace pension schemes, young people's savings are constrained by economic uncertainty, high student debt, unaffordable housing, and changing employment patterns.

Additionally, less than a third (28 per cent) of Gen X are on track to meet their retirement savings goals, enabling them to live 'comfortably' through retirement, according to Get Britain Pension Ready research.

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