There’s no question that the number of people in retirement in the UK is at an all-time high, and the news (for anyone who might have been in a cave for the past decade) is that the numbers will grow. At the moment there are just shy of 11 million people aged over 65 on this island and this number is expected to rise to approximately 15 million in the next couple of decades.
It is statistics like this that give all stakeholders – politicians, insurers, Councils, individuals themselves – kittens because, as we all know, finding the money to fund lots of the services retired people need is increasingly difficult. This is why this Government has attempted to draw a line in the sand with its work on pushing up the age of retirement, pension reform, funding long-term care, etc - the list goes on.
Unfortunately, for many the problems are so deep-seated that by the time they retire – whenever that might be – it could be something of a lottery as to whether they have the assets and resources to fund their retirement and whether the State have enough resource to step in. A retirement, I might add, that could last 20/30/40 years.
The big question is how do individuals fund their retirement when the supposed ‘safety net’ of the Government isn’t in a position to provide in a way it has in the past? With life expectancy growing with every medical advance and lifestyle change there has needed to be a radical re-evaluation of what it means to be retired, how an individual supports that retirement and the place of the State in later life. This Government has certainly begun the process of finding answers however future Parliaments will need to be just as radical if we are to get anywhere close to matching supply with demand.
It is because of all this that anyone offering advice on financial products for the retired, but particularly later life advisers, now find themselves in such an important position. Indeed in his Budget this year, while announcing the shake-up to pensions, the Chancellor fully acknowledged the need for individuals to have advice about how they should access their pension monies – although the reality of how this advice will be provided and paid-for is still up for debate.
At the moment however we still have a rather disparate group of advisers at work in the at-retirement space – for example, some will advise on equity release but not long-term care, others will be advising on annuities but unwilling to look at areas such as funeral plans or legal services. It is because of this that we have established the Later Life Academy – to bring together in one place an education and resource centre which provides support and development aids but also aims to provide members with commercial opportunities in a variety of product sectors.
The reality is that most people at, or in, retirement will have a number of different product needs at any one time and therefore we need some joined-up thinking and an inclusive approach that covers off as many of these as possible. The whole nature of what it means to be retired is, already has, changed to a huge degree and it is important that the later life sector not only responds to this but also leads the way forward over what will continue to be a very changeable period. Planning and preparing for whatever the coming years might bring is vital and, as a sector, we need to be at the forefront of delivery on this not just in the months and years ahead, but the decades to come.
