Summary

Life expectancy is an important consideration in employee benefit design. With respect to retirement plan benefits, increasing awareness of longevity risk has catalyzed retirement product evolution across asset allocation and income strategies and has contributed to retirement income and preparedness being commonplace topics for financial education and counseling. In fact, life expectancy trends have contributed to state policymaker action to address Medicaid expenditures on long-term care and explore new policies for financing long-term care.  As life expectancy includes both healthy and unhealthy years, this week’s Fast Fact compares the “measurements” and trends of these two groups.