From perk to infrastructure: how lifestyle benefits are evolving in 2026

The data from Forma’s 2026 global lifestyle benefits benchmark report points to something more significant than a series of trend updates. It reveals a fundamental shift in what LSAs can be and what it means to use them well. 

It feels like a reconceptualization of our benefits category, and we think the full implications haven't been widely internalized yet, even by benefits leaders who are already actively investing in this space.

Based on the data, here’s our view on what's actually happening, why it's happening now, and what total rewards professionals should be focused on as a result.

The LSA category needed to evolve

When Lifestyle Spending Accounts entered the mainstream benefits conversation almost a decade ago, they were framed primarily as a response to employee demand for flexibility. Give people money, let them spend it on what they want, and they'll feel good about their employer. At the time, it was the right move. 

That framing was directionally right but strategically incomplete. 

Flexibility for its own sake is nice. But flexibility deployed in service of real workforce outcomes is something else entirely.

The early LSA market was dominated by broad, all-inclusive accounts precisely because the value proposition was simpler to communicate that way. "Spend on almost anything" is easier to explain. 

The harder pitch — “we've designed a curated portfolio of targeted LSAs specifically aligned to our business priorities, budget realities, and workforce needs” — requires more sophistication to tell and more intention to build. 

In the early days, most organizations weren't ready for that conversation. In 2026, that’s changed.

Why this moment is different

Several forces are converging that make the current period genuinely distinct from earlier phases of LSA adoption.

Budget pressure is forcing precision.

Benefits budgets across industries are under more scrutiny than they were even just a few years ago. Leadership teams want to know the value of every benefit program and decision. That pressure is accelerating the shift from broad programs toward targeted ones, because targeted, use case-specific LSAs are often easier to measure and defend.

‍Business priorities are changing faster than traditional benefits programs can follow.

The pace at which strategic workforce challenges have emerged and shifted in the past few years — AI readiness, return-to-office dynamics, global talent competition, caregiving demands amplified by an aging population — has exposed the limitations of a benefits model that requires months to adapt. Organizations running LSA infrastructure are discovering that they can use it to respond in real time. That capability isn't just convenient. In the current environment, it's a genuine competitive advantage.

The employee-employer relationship has matured.

The workforce has sophisticated expectations about benefits now. Employees don't need an employer to tell them what flexibility means. What they want is evidence that their employer has actually thought about what they need — that the benefits on offer reflect some understanding of their real challenges and priorities. A thoughtfully designed portfolio of focused accounts communicates that understanding. A catch-all "spend on anything" account communicates much less.

Global equity is no longer optional for multinational employers.

As organizations have expanded globally and as distributed work has made location-based benefits increasingly inequitable, the pressure to deliver consistent, meaningful benefits across markets has intensified. The organizations solving this problem at scale are using LSAs to do it — and the tools for doing it well have matured significantly.

What we believe is coming next

The trajectory we see in the 2026 data points toward a future where lifestyle benefits become fully integrated with the rest of an organization's benefits strategy — not a separate program managed by a separate vendor, but core infrastructure as part of a coherent total rewards architecture.

A few specific directions worth watching:

The portfolio approach becomes the default, not the exception.

The employers who have moved from a single all-inclusive account to a curated portfolio of two to five focused accounts are not going back. As their results become visible — through utilization data, employee sentiment, and retention outcomes — others will follow. The all-inclusive LSA will remain relevant for some, but we increasingly see sets of multiple use case-specific LSAs on the rise.

Benefits velocity becomes a competitive differentiator.

The ability to deploy a new benefit account in days rather than months will become an explicit expectation, not a pleasant surprise. Organizations that treat benefits agility as a strategic capability (building the infrastructure, the processes, and the internal expertise to move quickly) will have a meaningful advantage in both talent markets and total rewards conversations.

AI-era workforce challenges will continue to drive focused account innovation.

The emergence of new LSA use cases is early evidence of something larger. As AI reshapes job functions and skill requirements across industries, the pressure on employers to support workforce adaptation through benefits infrastructure will increase. We expect to see continued innovation in how organizations use LSAs to support continuous learning, career transitions, and the development of human capabilities that complement AI.

Global equity will be table stakes for enterprise employers.

The 50% of employers in our study who now run LSAs across multiple countries are ahead of a curve that the rest of the market will eventually follow. Delivering equitable, locally relevant benefits at global scale isn't just a best practice — it's increasingly what enterprise-level employees expect from employers who make equity commitments and then have to deliver on them.

What this means for you

If you're a total rewards or benefits leader reading this, here's our honest perspective: the category you've been operating in is undergoing a real transformation.

That doesn't mean you need to overhaul your entire program immediately. But it does mean it's worth asking some pointed questions about where your current benefits investment sits on the spectrum from nice-to-have perk to strategic infrastructure. What outcomes are your current programs designed to achieve? How quickly can you adapt it when business priorities shift? Are you serving all your employees equitably, regardless of where they are in the world?

The answers to those questions — and what you decide to do with them — are where the work gets interesting.

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Want the data behind our POV?

‍→  Download Forma's 2026 global lifestyle benefits benchmark report