I am turning 55 soon and have been reflecting on being more than half way through my life. Even though I think a lot about the potential for increased lifespan, healthspan, requiring greater wealthspan, I still catch myself in the classic, work for 40 years, retire somewhere in my 60s, then spend down investments for the next 20 or 25 years. It is so ingrained, and so outdated.
Over the weekend Mike Allison wrote that the oldest boomer born in 1946 entered a country where roughly one in thirty newborns died before their first birthday, real disposable income per person was under $11,000 in today’s dollars, and life expectancy for a boy was about 64. Eighty years later, income per capita is around $50,000, infant mortality has fallen dramatically, and life expectancy has risen by more than twelve years, with the wealthy expected to live 7 years longer than those with less means.
While there were jumps in lifespan like the early 70s developments in cardiac medicine, mostly lifespan compounded quietly.
If medical developments, longevity research, and changes in attitudes around food and exercise continue to improve lifespans and healthspans, reaching 100 may be viewed the way many people now see 80: common, plausible, and not necessarily defined by frailty.
A longer life is wonderful, but it also means more years exposed to inflation, market cycles, tax changes, health care costs, family complexity, legislation, and behavioral mistakes. It means retirement may become less of a pivotal event and more of a series of transitions. Clients may work longer, retire gradually, consult, start second acts, support adult children, care for aging parents, relocate, and more deeply contemplate what money is actually for.
This is where advisors can separate themselves from software. Many people feel lost without the career they identified with for so many years. You are already their trusted advisor, are you ready help them figure out what kind of life they are trying to fund, how much flexibility they need, or what risks matter most at each stage in this dynamic process? Are you up for it?
A longer, less linear life creates different portfolio needs as well. Clients may need liquidity for transitions. They may need income that can adapt. They will need growth. They may need a more comprehensive plan for managing risk because one large drawdown at the wrong time can change behavior, even if the long-term math still works.
Do you have the skill to help them work through who they will be and what transitions they will go through as they shift focus with new needs at every step? Maybe you are not a financial therapist (yes that is a real thing), but it might not hurt to examine the field for your next CE credits.
If clients are going to live longer, work differently, retire differently, and experience more reinventions along the way, advisors need to help coach them through. The future may be brighter than expected, but a 100-year life needs a plan and advisor that never stops adapting.
https://www.mikeallison.com/p/the-sunday-drive-08232026-edition?img=https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/74c04eec-938b-4c08-ab94-0f352a79caf9_1100x825.jpeg&open=false
https://www.help.senate.gov/dem/newsroom/press/new-report-working-class-americans-can-expect-to-die-at-least-7-years-earlier-than-the-wealthy
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