Fidelity has released multiple retirement planning tools designed to help savers assess their readiness and build personalized strategies. The newest offering, Plan for Life, launched in the UK in autumn 2025 for workplace pension members, while Fidelity's Retirement Score is available to broader audiences in the US to show savers where they stand relative to their retirement goal. These tools fill a real gap: most people save without knowing whether their current path leads to a secure retirement. By converting your savings data and assumptions into a readiness score, Fidelity's tools let you run scenarios—changing your retirement age, savings rate, or investment approach—to see what it takes to close any gap.
Table of Contents
- What Fidelity's Retirement Planning Tools Offer
- How the Tools Work and What They Measure
- Availability and Access
- What the Scores Mean and When to Act
- Critical Limitations
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Fidelity's Retirement Planning Tools Offer
Fidelity offers three complementary tools rather than one. Plan for Life, available to UK workplace pension scheme members, builds a personalized retirement plan using your existing pension data plus broader savings and income assumptions, then models scenarios to show how changes affect your outcome. Over 1,000 members are actively using it as of mid-2026.
The Retirement Score is available to all US savers—even non-Fidelity customers. It generates a readiness score (ranging from red zone at under 65% of your goal to green zone at 81–95%) based on six inputs: age, salary, current retirement savings, monthly savings rate, expected retirement spending, and investment risk preference. Fidelity's Planning & Guidance Center projects financial outcomes across three market scenarios and is free to all users. Plan for Life goes further by pairing its digital tool with optional one-to-one financial coaching, allowing members to schedule follow-up appointments with the same advisor.
How the Tools Work and What They Measure
The Retirement Score answers one core question: are you on track? It compares your projected retirement income against your expected needs and shows where you stand percentile-wise against peers in your age and salary range and all US savers. You can then adjust three variables—retirement age, monthly savings, or investment approach—to test whether those changes put you in the green.
The tool displays your projected monthly retirement income and uses Fidelity's research data showing the median US Retirement Preparedness Measure score is 78, meaning the typical saver is on track to have 78% of the income Fidelity estimates they will need. This benchmark matters: if your score is below 78, you are behind average and may need to act. Plan for Life adds scenario modeling to show exactly how contributions, retirement age, or savings behavior changes affect your projection over time.
Availability and Access
Plan for Life is currently limited to members of UK workplace pension schemes using Fidelity International. Fidelity has not announced a US or retail version.
The Retirement Score and Planning & Guidance Center are open to anyone in the US—no account required. you can use them for free at Fidelity's website without signing in, making them accessible even if you save through another provider.
What the Scores Mean and When to Act
Fidelity's scoring system divides savers into three zones: red (under 65% of goal), fair (65–80%), and green (81–95%). A red score does not mean retirement is impossible—it means your current assumptions (contribution rate, retirement age, investment mix) suggest you may fall short and should test changes. A fair score means you are close to average but have little margin for error.
A green score means you are on track under your stated assumptions. The percentile comparison reveals whether you are ahead or behind peers earning and saving similarly. This context matters: two savers at 78% of goal look identical, but one is ahead of 40% of their age group and the other ahead of 80%, suggesting very different urgency levels.
Critical Limitations
According to financial analysis, Fidelity's retirement planning tool is a high-level strategic model, not a tactical, month-by-month budget tool. It projects overall income adequacy but does not plan for specific expenses, tax consequences, or order-of-withdrawal decisions.
You must conduct trial-and-error scenario testing with different expense assumptions to determine whether retirement is feasible under your specific spending budget. The tool also relies on your assumptions about returns, inflation, and longevity—if your assumptions are off, your score will be too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Fidelity account to use these tools?
No. The Retirement Score and Planning & Guidance Center are free and open to anyone, even non-customers. Plan for Life is limited to UK workplace pension scheme members enrolled with Fidelity International.
What happens if my score is in the red zone?
A red score means your projected retirement income may fall short of estimated needs under your current assumptions. Test scenarios: increase monthly contributions, delay retirement by a few years, or adjust your investment risk approach to see which changes move your score into fair or green range.
Can these tools replace a financial advisor?
These are self-service planning tools for strategic assessment. Plan for Life includes optional one-to-one coaching; the standalone Retirement Score and Planning Center do not. For complex situations—pensions, taxes, estate planning—an advisor is still valuable.