Article How living longer could affect your clients' advice needs

Generation by generation, on average, we in the UK are living longer than ever before.¹ And in doing so, we’re evolving the ways in which we make the most of our time, diving head-first into new opportunities, and facing the very real challenges that come with living longer.

From changing family dynamics and health considerations, to evolving work patterns and retirement goals, many are choosing to adopt a more flexible approach to their future, making life after 50 – or our Second 50, as we like to call it – an increasingly diverse, multi‑stage chapter of life.

As their adviser, you’re closer than most to the needs, experiences and decisions that define how your clients in their Second 50 live, work, raise their families, save and retire. In particular, you’ll see first-hand how living longer leads many to think differently about their future, how they reach their goals, and find meaning in later life.

To help you support your over-50 clients, this article will explore how later life is changing, what our biggest hopes and fears are, and the key fundamentals to living a happy and fulfilling Second 50. In this article, we'll explore:

• What is the Second 50 and a ‘multi-stage’ life?
• How is the Second 50 affecting your clients’ relationship with retirement?
• Understanding your clients’ aspirations and concerns for later life
• Supporting your clients’ five fundamentals

Unless otherwise stated, the research presented in this article was conducted by Aegon in August 2025, in a nationally representative study of 900 UK workers and 100 UK retirees.

What is the Second 50 and a 'multi-stage' life?

Presented with a realistic chance of living longer than previous generations, many approaching or already in their Second 50 are increasingly developing and adopting new ways of tackling modern life – from how they look after themselves and their families, to how they save, work, spend and retire.

The result is that many people aged 50 and over are now living highly varied, ‘multi-stage’ lives, defined by a blurring of responsibilities and challenges that require us to manage our resources in more ways than ever before. Here are some examples of how our Second 50 is changing:

• Average projected life expectancy for a 50-year-old in the UK is now 86, meaning they’ll likely have a further 36 years to plan for, finance and enjoy.²
• Not only are people having children later³, but those kids are living at home for longer too.⁴ This makes it more likely that many over-50s will still bear significant support responsibilities to their children much later in life.
• At the same time, they’re also looking after their ageing parents as they live longer as well, with 1.4 million people in the UK – the majority of which are aged 45-64 – now considered part of the ‘sandwich generation’, a term for those who bear caring responsibilities to both younger and older family members.⁵
• The average weekly household expenditure in the UK has also increased by 18% between 2014-15 and 2023-24, as rising everyday costs impact everyone across the country.⁶
• Possibly to help meet these costs, people are choosing to work for longer too, with the number of UK workers aged 65+ increasing by 53% between 2016 and 2026.⁷

How is the Second 50 affecting your clients' relationship with retirement?

With so many responsibilities to juggle over an increasing number of years, it’s no surprise that your clients approaching or in their 50s could display a changing relationship with their work and retirement.

Our Second 50 research found that only 24% of people now envision a clean break from full-time employment into full-time retirement. Instead, over a third of people now plan to never stop working, maintaining some form of paid employment throughout their life (34%). A further 24% favour a longer and more gradual transition out of the workplace via flexible work arrangements, such as part-time or temporary contracts.

The motivations for working longer appear to be largely positive, which can only be a good thing for your current and future Second 50 clients. Just under half of workers say it’s because they want to keep their brain active (44%), while 43% simply enjoy their work and working life. However, a further 22% do so out of fear they’ve not saved enough.

For advisers, this could mean you see a growing number of clients opting to delay their retirement in order to earn and save for longer. Pensions, particularly workplace pensions, could benefit from this change, potentially enabling clients to accumulate larger savings by the time they eventually retire. This would open new opportunities in how you support them to balance their financial resources and personal goals, including making up for any savings shortcomings and funding the unique demands of a modern Second 50.

Understanding your clients' aspirations and concerns for later life

Providing the best possible advice begins with a clear understanding of what your clients’ need, want to achieve, and worry about – including how each of these could possibly change and evolve over time.

When it comes to retirement and later life, we found that people across the UK share a number of goals. In particular, our survey respondents indicated that spending more time with friends and family is the most popular aspiration for later life (54%). A further 48% said they want to travel, and 33% said they hope to pursue new hobbies. As a result, you may find that many of your clients come to you for help in planning their finances with these goals in mind.

However, amidst difficult circumstances – high cost of living, international conflicts impacting the UK economy, and growing financial and care responsibilities – people recognise that achieving these goals could be a challenge.

Notably, financial concerns weigh heavily on those looking to the future, with 39% saying they fear running out of money in later life. In fact, over a quarter aren’t confident they’ll be able to retire into a lifestyle they consider comfortable (28%). This concern is also compounded by the fact we’re likely to live longer, too. With an increased number of years to live and fund, there may be greater significance placed on your role in helping clients to preserve or grow their wealth for as long as possible.

Fears regarding greater longevity were also evident in the fact that declining physical health was the number one most common concern for later life (40%). It’s important to recognise that greater life expectancy doesn’t necessarily mean greater healthy life expectancy, with our own and others’ health likely to decline as the years advance.

Supporting your clients' five fundamentals

Fulfilling our retirement aspirations and overcoming our later-life fears often involves a balance between what we’d like to do, the resources we have at our disposal, and the circumstances we find ourselves in. To achieve this, you can support your clients by helping them to reflect on what’s most relevant and important to them, before building a financial plan that’s positive, realistic and achievable.

Those in their Second 50 face even greater challenges in finding that balance. However, our research identified five fundamental aspects that could define how your clients plan for later life. Here are some key takeaways for how you could use them to shape your advice.

Wealth

Preparing for the future is difficult at the best of times, but long-term fluctuations in inflation, interest rates and investment returns, as well as client needs and expectations, can make financial planning even more challenging.

A longer life means more years to budget for and fund, and financial advice could be crucial to making your clients’ money last over the course of their extended lifetime. From making sure sustainable pensions contributions and understanding decumulation options, to contingency planning and pursuing their top priorities, planning for the Second 50 is likely to span every aspect of wealth management and be highly unique to each client’s individual circumstances.

Health

With our survey finding that people expect to live an average of six years in ill-health after retirement, looking after ourselves physically and mentally is becoming an increasingly important part of present and future life planning.

In the more immediate future, you may want to help your clients get ahead of their naturally declining health by considering ways of building exercise or mental wellbeing support into their budgets and routines, such as gym memberships, healthier eating or therapy sessions.

For the long term, it may be necessary to have some more difficult conversations about the possibility of needing social care and how it could be funded by their retirement income. Living longer means we may be more likely to suffer greater health issues as the years go by, making it concerning to find that only 10% of people have factored social care into their retirement plans.

Wellbeing

Wellbeing is possibly the most personal of the five fundamentals, encompassing how we feel about ourselves and our circumstances. It’s a broad subject too – things we derive our wellbeing from could be tangible experiences, such as travelling to new places, or more emotion-led targets, like ‘feeling in control’ or ‘feeling content’.

For advisers, supporting your clients to improve and maximise their wellbeing is about developing an understanding of what brings them joy and purpose, and then helping to manage their finances in a manner that enables them to realise these goals. This could be as simple as creating a more concrete vision of their future self, allowing you to devise more personal and wellbeing-led savings plans that support better outcomes for them and your business.

Work

If your clients are among the many choosing to work later into their Second 50, you may find a number of financial implications to consider.

At the basic level, more years of earning a salary means more assets to manage, while it’s likely they and their employer will also be paying into a workplace pension for longer. This may mean they turn to you for guidance on how much they should be contributing, whether their invested funds or consolidation is right for them, or what their retirement income options are.

Beyond the immediate financials, you may also want to consider their transition into eventual retirement. Adopting new work patterns to accommodate care responsibilities or their own health could see earnings change gradually or at very short notice, increasing the need and value of devising a plan for income sustainability, expenditure management and tax implications in the long term.

Family

Family dynamics are among the most sensitive to navigate when supporting clients, especially as a growing number of people in their Second 50 face the balancing act of looking after themselves while also helping both younger and older relatives over a longer period of time.

Clients in multi-generational and blended households could also present more complex financial circumstances, as disparate needs, resources and goals are juggled under one roof. The value stemming from the clarity offered by advice is never more prominent than when helping clients to protect their loved ones.

50 years of possibilities

The Second 50 presents many challenges to how you and your clients manage their financial matters, but it also opens up opportunities for how we all live, enjoy and fund our later years. A longer life is something to celebrate, and you can play a vital role in helping your clients to prepare for all the adventures to come.

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