By: Edward J. Leach, CFP®, MBA
As Wealth Advisors with extensive experience guiding high net-worth families through the intricacies of planning for their transition to retirement, we have witnessed firsthand the evolving dynamics of what it means to retire well. Traditionally, the focus has been on ensuring financial security through wealth accumulation, aiming to cover the expenses of one's lifespan. The traditional definition of "Retirement Planning".
However, an emerging perspective, advocated by experts like Dr. Peter Attia, a renowned longevity expert and author of the New York Times Bestseller "Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity," prioritizes healthspan over lifespan.
The distinction between healthspan and lifespan is critical. Lifespan denotes the total number of years lived. At the same time, healthspan focuses on the period during which an individual enjoys good health and quality of life—enabling a retirement filled with vitality, mobility, and cognitive clarity.
As your Wealth Advisor, how can we help plan for a longer healthspan?
Here are three things to consider:
1. Investment in Preventive Personal Health
Proactively investing in your health, from nutrition to stress reduction, can expand your healthspan. Investing in your health may involve simply creating the time in your day to exercise or getting personalized medicine and preventive treatments usually not covered by insurance. Holistic wellness has many components that are unique to everyone.
Our cash flow planning process can help you proactively plan for health span-enhancing expenses, such as preventive screening tests, personalized nutritional consultations, fitness programs, stress management classes, and other services to keep you vibrant and active.
2. Financial Flexibility
With the prospect of more healthy years ahead, your retirement portfolios need resiliency to support an active lifestyle over an extended healthspan. In retirement planning, we call this mitigating "longevity risk."
More high-quality years equate to more opportunities for indulging bucket-list goals. Whether luxurious travel, new hobbies, or advanced education, we can thoughtfully incorporate these goals into retirement spending plans.
Our planning process tests your retirement plan projections in various market environments and lifespans, consistently monitoring your progress as your life evolves.
3. Dynamic Legacy Planning
A longer healthspan means more time to witness the impact of your legacy. You may rethink estate plans, gifting to children or grandchildren, and charitable giving to align with values shaped by additional years of life.
This is why our proactive monitoring of your Legacy plan is critical in ensuring your goals are incorporated into your planning strategies as your life and family evolve.
The takeaway?
Prioritizing healthspan over lifespan offers a profound shift in how we approach retirement planning. It's about crafting a retirement that's wealthy in financial terms but rich in experiences, health, and personal fulfillment. It is why a critical part of our planning work centers around life planning and having conversations to map out what gives your life purpose - be it volunteering, passion projects, quality time with family, or leaving a philanthropic legacy.
A long life is enriched by purpose, and we believe the accurate measure of our wealth is not just the size of our accounts or the length of our lives but the quality of life we enjoy.
Ed Leach, CFP®, MBA, is a Partner and Wealth Advisor at HIGHLAND Financial Advisors, LLC in Wayne, NJ, and works directly with clients advising them on their financial planning and investments. Ed’s work focuses on the unique needs of business owners, helping them extract value from their businesses while creating efficiencies in their business and personal financial plans. He is also a member of NAPFA, which is dedicated to serving fee-only advisors.