With a lifespan of just 49 years (259-210 BC), Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, achieved a great deal in a short life. He’s celebrated for unifying the empire, as well as for building China’s 5,000-kilometre Great Wall. His obsession, though, was finding the elixir of life and gaining eternal youth. According to legend, Qin Shi Huang’s quest for immortality ended in tragedy when he ingested a poisonous elixir containing mercury.

Had he lived today, medical science would likely have delivered several decades more, albeit not life eternal. Life expectancy is rising fast: many people are living to 100 thanks to medical breakthroughs and the wider availability of healthcare. Even in poorer communities, clean water and better sanitation are prolonging lives.

But living longer raises both financial and social questions. Most notably, if people live far longer, how will they fund decades in retirement? How will they pay for the rising costs of medical care and other age-related expenses in old age? Only thoughtful wealth planning can provide the answers, taking into account all practicalities.

What’s more, from a social perspective greater longevity increases the chances of friction between generations, complicating family successions. Again, this is a risk that prudent planning can mitigate.

Longer lives, plunging birth rates

When it comes to the population’s ageing, the facts are undeniable. The share of the population aged 65 or over doubled from slightly under 5% in 1960 to 10% in 2024, according to the UN World Population Prospects 2024. Looking to the future, more than a third of people living in the European Union, China and Japan are expected to be 65+ by 2050. Anecdotally, many of them are likely to live to 100.¹

At the same time, plunging birthrates are raising the population’s average age still further, storing up future challenges for funding retirement. Partly due to women’s focus on careers and better access to contraception, global fertility rates have fallen from 3.3 children per woman in 1960 to just 2.2 in 2024, according to the UN World Fertility Report 2024. It’s forecast to decline further to 2.1 births in 2050, and just 1.8 by 2100.

What does this mean for retirement planning? There’s an implicit social contract: each generation funds the pension income of the previous generation. If the ratio of workers to pensioners falls, the contract appears likely to be broken. This will leave governments struggling to fund retirements, making the individual’s wealth planning critical.

When planning for a longer old age, there are many things to consider. It’s not just a longer life – it’s also many years of independent living, leading to spending on care at home. The desire for independence remains strong despite advancing years, according to a McKinsey Health Institute survey of more than 1,000 adults aged over 55 in 21 countries.

Additionally, the costs of healthcare may increase. Broadly speaking, though, studies show that they only tend to be a burden in the final months of life, with some variations between countries depending on lifestyles. 

A paradigm shift affecting wealth and succession planning

There’s a paradigm shift in longevity under way that must be reflected in wealth planning. Evidently if people live longer, often to 100 years, they’ll need to plan their finances to support them for a longer time. This has implications even for the wealthiest people, requiring a rethink of investment portfolios and asset allocation. 

Longer life also raises the likelihood of conflict between generations. In terms of succession planning, people may need to plan for succession across more than one generation. This increases the importance of involving younger generations in succession planning. For financial intermediaries, this means not only planning for their clients’ succession but also for their own, as they delay retirement and continue to work, requiring them to develop strategies for transitioning their businesses and maintaining client relationships.

If China’s Qin Shi Huang had lived today, he would have settled for a longer life rather than seeking eternal youth, but he also would have discovered the difficulties of longevity. As it was, the Qin Dynasty only lasted for two generations – something that careful succession planning might have avoided.