When you hear the words “longevity risk” you may wonder what we are talking about. Longevity refers to “long life” or “length of life.” Simply put, longevity risk is the risk that someone will outlive their wealth and available income.

 

In fact, the risk that someone will outlive their wealth and available income is one of people’s biggest fears in retirement.1

 

People are living longer.2 On average, once they reach age 65, men can expect to live to 83 and women to 85.6.3 Not only has the average life expectancy increased, but one out of 10 will live past 95—the number of people living to age 100 increased more than 43% from 2000 to 2014!4

 

From a financial point of view, living a long time can drastically affect many of your retirement costs, impacting and presenting a “risk” to many different items in your budget—right when you will be living on a fixed income.

 

Let’s examine some of the issues affected by longevity:

 

  1. Healthcare

 

Healthcare expenses are a huge chunk of any retirement budget—even with Medicare. A healthy 65-year-old couple can expect to spend $285,000 in today’s dollars to cover Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket health care expenses, not including long-term care.5 Living longer not only increases yearly healthcare outlays, but your chances of developing more serious health issues tend to increase as you get older.

 

  1. Incapacitation

 

Your odds of becoming incapacitated also increase with age, which could lead to the need for nursing care. In fact, the majority of people over 65 may end up needing some form of assistance.6 The average yearly cost of a semi-private room in a nursing facility is $89,292.7

 

Yes, you can qualify for Medicaid to cover your nursing home stay—if you spend down all of your assets to poverty level. There are options to this scenario that you definitely want to consider.

 

  1. Inflation

 

Prices will continue to get higher through the years—in fact, inflation is part of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. Inflation undermines your purchasing power over time. It goes without saying that the longer you live, the more you will spend on consumer goods and living expenses.

 

  1. Excess Withdrawal / Inadequate Income

 

If your portfolio isn’t structured properly to provide enough income for a long life, you really are at risk of running out of money. Unexpected family expenses or needing to withdraw money during a market downturn can affect your nest egg negatively for the long term (kind of like compound interest in reverse). The death of a spouse is also a risk to your income, as Social Security benefits will likely decrease and taxes will increase due to fewer household exemptions.

 

The point of this article is not to inspire fear, but to inspire early, realistic retirement planning. Don’t worry about the future–let’s make some solid plans! Call us and let’s sit down together to review your unique financial situation, needs and goals. Together, we can create a plan that can help mitigate your risks.

 

Sources:

 

1 https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2019/feb/top-retirement- fears-201920387.html

2 https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2017/08/16/life-expectancy-for-a-65-year-old-increases-1-6-ye/

3 https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/life-expectancy-at-65.htm

4 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-americans-are-living-past-their-100th-birthdays/

5 https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/personal-finance/plan-for-rising-health-care-costs

6 https://longtermcare.acl.gov/the-basics/index.html

7 https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care.html