Retirement
Longevity update required
The table used by the superannuation industry and financial planners to estimate longevity and calculate savings and spending habits is drastically underestimating retiree requirements, according to the Actuaries Institute.

Longevity update required
The table used by the superannuation industry and financial planners to estimate longevity and calculate savings and spending habits is drastically underestimating retiree requirements, according to the Actuaries Institute.

The Actuaries Institute is pushing for a government review as more and more superannuation members outlive their retirement nest eggs.
A couple of average health needs a plan that lasts until they are 100 to be 80 per cent sure their financial plan meets their lifespan, the institute explained.
According to the institute, that is 16 years longer than if the adviser used the simple look-up table for a 65-year-old male.
Actuaries Institute president Nicolette Rubinsztein said the government has made a strategic commitment to improve retirement income products, due to longer life expectancy.
She noted that “life expectancy calculations are often required in the superannuation and financial planning industries”.
Highlighting improvements to lifespan over the past 50 years, the advisory group has emphasised that the 2010 figure of a woman living to 87 is likely to outlive her retirement income.
“A healthy, well-educated female entering retirement today, who had an affluent career and enjoys a good quality of housing, is just as likely to live beyond age 100 as she is to die before age 80,” the institute said.
It looked at a number of factors affecting longevity, including: medical research, living standards, nutrition, lifestyle, education, occupation, genetics and wealth.
“If an adviser group has 1,000 healthy, educated, professional 65-year-old couples as clients, it could expect more than half of these households to still have one spouse alive at age 95,” the institute concluded.
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