The fact that the world is getting older should come as no surprise to you. There are already over half a billion people over the age of 65 and that demographic won’t be shrinking anytime soon.
To stay ahead of the curve and to future-proof your practice, your firm needs to start accommodating this demographic shift now. Longevity planning will be a crucial part of business moving forward and for the foreseeable future as life expectancy continues to rise.
How to incorporate longevity planning into your practice
Plan for women.
Women makeup 50 percent of the population but generally outlive men and end up being the decision maker for a large percent of medical spending. While your financial planning principals can generally be agnostic to gender, there’s no doubt that you need to be giving serious consideration to the likelihood of a woman outliving her husband and what that will entail for their future. How will pensions be affected? What about her children? Even smaller things such as taste in vehicles or living situations can be influenced by a single woman versus a married couple. Keep things like this in mind as you are strategizing about your client’s future wealth.
Don’t fear new technology.
As automation, software, and artificial intelligence rapidly progress, you will need to understand how these new technologies will affect your business. Generally speaking, most of them will be positive and likely take some work off your plate. Keep an eye out for these kinds of advancements in the financial planning sector as they may make your job easier and deliver better, more personalized results to your clients.
Pay attention to how retirement is changing.
There’s no shortage of retirement tropes out there. Playing golf, traveling, visiting grandkids, but that might not be the reality for all. Trends change and there’s no doubt that retirement today will be different from retirement ten years from now. While some of these are personal preference, some are influenced by external forces. The government often has a large impact on how retirement will be spent. Be sure to keep tabs on news regarding policy or trends that will influence your clients’ wealth down the road.
Pay attention to big pharma.
If there’s one parallel industry that is invested in the elderly as you, it’s pharmaceutical companies. These companies pour billions of dollars into market research that you can take advantage of. Watch these companies closely as they will be changing strategies to capitalize on the aging market. Not all of their moves will be valuable to you, but if you pay attention, some of them will have a direct impact on your clients’ future which means you’ll be prepared to advise confidently on their assets.
These strategies will enable you to put a deeper focus on longevity planning for your clients along with their retirement plan. When used with personalized solutions such as HALO, you can truly future-proof your business.