The state of global LSAs in 2026: multi-country programs are the new normal

For benefits teams at globally distributed employers, one problem tends to sit at the center of the job. How do you offer something that feels equitable to an employee in Bengaluru, Berlin, and Boston at the same time? The currencies are different, the tax rules are different, the cultural expectations are different, and most teams have inherited a stack of local point solutions that were never designed to work together. It is one of the hardest parts of running benefits at global scale, and for a long time there was no clean way to solve it.

That question is what led us to our newest research report, The State of Global LSAs. It draws on Forma’s 2026 global lifestyle benefits benchmark report, a study of 300 employers, nearly 1 million employees, and 110 countries and territories, providing snapshots of 12 key markets to show how Lifestyle Spending Accounts are funded and utilized around the world. 

A few of the findings genuinely surprised us. Here is a preview of what is inside.

The shape of the market is changing

For years, the all-inclusive, spend-on-anything LSA was the default choice. Over the last year, that started to change. The broad model contracted for the first time, while curated, use-case-specific accounts grew faster than ever. Benefits teams are moving toward portfolios of dedicated wallets, covering well-being, professional development, caregiving, home office setup, and more, each tuned to what a given market actually needs. The report tracks where that shift is heading and which categories are growing fastest, including a handful of brand-new account types that employers only stood up in the past year.

The differences between markets are more interesting than the averages

In The State of Global LSAs report (Forma), we zoom in on 12 key markets across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas:

•    Asia-Pacific: Australia, India, and Singapore

•    Europe: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom

•    Americas: Canada, Mexico, and the United States

The country-by-country picture is where things get really interesting. One Asia-Pacific market posts the highest core-account budget utilization in the entire study. Another reaches near the top of that same range on a fraction of the funding seen elsewhere, which turns out to be one of the more quietly persuasive arguments in the report for designing to local needs rather than a single global template. Europe has its own center of gravity around family formation and supplemental health. The Americas lean into fitness. 

Each market gets its own breakdown, with the top accounts, their funding, and their budget utilization laid out side by side.

How employees are actually using their LSAs

The open question with any new benefit is whether anyone will use it. Across most of the countries in the report, employees spent 85% and above of their allocated LSA funds. Those budget utilization figures, and what they reveal about how funding and account design shape engagement, are a large part of what makes the country-level data worth sitting with.

How real global benefits teams built their LSA programs

The report also highlights how different companies designed and expanded global LSA programs. For example, Logitech consolidated from more than 30 point solutions and now offers a wellness LSA spanning 43 countries, all while reclaiming a meaningful amount of administrative time along the way. Tripadvisor took a different route, launching its program with no net-new budget by finding spend it already had in places most teams never think to look. The State of Global LSAs walks through what each of them did, where their utilization sits, and even some specific steps one benefits leader used to bring Finance, Legal, and the executive team on board.

One idea underneath all of it

If there is a single thread running through the research, it’s this: global LSAs work because they provide consistency on top and local nuance underneath. Employees everywhere get one platform and one experience, while funding, currency, language, and the mix of accounts flex to each market. Cost-of-living-adjusted funding is how a program stays fair when a workforce is spread across dozens of countries with very different economics, and the report shows how leading teams put that into practice, including one company that applies a cost-of-living adjustment across 21 countries so each employee receives an amount that is equitable to them.

Take a look

The question has shifted from whether to offer LSAs globally to how to run them well, and this report helps benefits teams and consultants to make sense of the journey. If scaling global benefits without draining your team or extending point solution sprawl is on your agenda, this report is for you.

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