How to Make the Most of Increasing Longevity

Four industry experts attending the Milken Institute’s Future of Health Summit 2025 noted that as Americans live longer, the challenge is not just adding years to their lives, but making sure that time includes quality, health and financial security.

During the panel, “The Longevity Equation: Integrating Healthspan and Wealthspan,” the speakers explored innovative strategies and systems intended to help close the gap between what people need and what the current system delivers, given today’s demographic realities.

“It’s great that people are living longer, but it’s important to acknowledge the disparities between their wealth span, lifespan and health span,” said Alberto Casellas, the executive president and CEO of health and wellness at Synchrony Financial. “We haven’t spoken enough about saving for [their] health.”

Workplace Well-being

Amy Resnick, executive editor of CIO and PLANSPONSOR, the moderator of the panel, began by asking the panel what is changing about longevity. Jim Harter, the chief workplace scientist at Gallup Inc., began his answer with what has not changed.

There are “five elements” that lead to longevity, said Harter. Among them are career, social, financial, physical and community well-being. According to Harter, these elements are important for employers to consider as they try to build workplace cultures that are engaging and that foster employee well-being.

As for what has changed, “employees now—particularly young employees—are more detached from the employer than ever before,” Harter said. “There lies an opportunity.”

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, close to half (48%) of people strongly agreed that their employer cared about their well-being, according to Harter. That proportion has since dropped to 28%.

“The role of manager has to be defined very differently than it was in the past,” Harter said. “It can’t just be an administrator; it [has] to be a manager as a coach … [who] directs [employees] to the right resources.”

Managers can have ongoing conversations with workers, recognize them for their work, ask them how they do their best work and adjust their work so it works for them, Harter said.

“You cannot fix anything you can’t talk about,” added Henderson.

Casellas said that since his company began offering work-from-home options during the pandemic, he has witnessed employees successfully accomplish tasks at both home and work. He says the workplace flexibility policy has also improved Synchrony’s retention and recruitment numbers.

“People with higher well-being are more productive. They serve customers more functionally for the organization,” added Harter. “This is a benefit to organizational leadership.”

Planning and Financing

Health and well-being are clients’ “greatest assets,” said Dr. Kim Henderson, a medical doctor who is also the head of wealth management health and wellness education at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management. At some point, “their finances are done and dusted, so what is the one most important thing in their life? It’s their longevity … it’s not all about the balance sheet.”

Resnick added that while money is not everything, Henderson told her before the panel, “Retirement is the most expensive thing any of us are buying.”

Henderson added that there is no preparation or certification for individuals to learn retirement preparedness, but “people who fail to plan—plan to fail,” she said. “Plan for retirement just like you planned when you were [studying] in undergraduate.”

She recommended that retirees should speak with someone who specializes in helping to answer, “What home is safe for you? How do you get transportation? Who’s going to go out to lunch with you.”

Industry players should educate their clients, consumers and patients that it should be “part of their DNA” to plan, Casellas added.

Know Your Risk

“We’ve all heard of financial literacy, but how about longevity literacy?” asked Surya Kolluri, head of the TIAA Institute. “Those with higher levels of longevity literacy know they are going to live longer, have better financial outcomes and report better retirement outcomes.”

Kolluri said advisers need to inform their clients of four risks they need to manage to achieve longevity fitness: financial risk, cognitive risk, physical fall risk and “profound social isolation risk.”

The financial risk is running out of money. The cognitive risk is a “tsunami coming at us,” said Kolluri. “The first skill to dissipate with dementia is financial skill.”

Kolluri noted that today, there is a one-in-three chance of having dementia by age 85.

In addition, physical falls pose a great risk of injury to older adults. In the U.S., more than 14 million adults age 65 and older—about 25% of that population—report falling each year, according to the Center for Disease Control’s “Older Adults Fall Data,” published in October 2024.

As for isolation risk, Kolluri asked, “When the door closes and we retire, what are those social structures?”

Building a Bed and a Roof

There is an analogy TIAA uses to represent the various components needed when financing retirement, according to Kolluri.

First, there is the “floor”: Social Security, said Kolluri. It is something to sleep on, but it may be uncomfortable. The next is the “mattress”: a way to pay yourself in retirement.

“The thickness of the mattress depends on how much you put away,” Kolluri explained. “If the sum [of the floor and mattress] can pay your bills, you’re set, because you’re not anxious about the market. Otherwise, you [become] a reluctant spender.”

Kolluri said the final element is the roof: the money an individual has left over to put into the market while retired to keep earning returns.

In 2025, an individual aged 65 and older can expect to spend $172,5000 on health care in retirement, Resnick added, citing data from Fidelity this year. For a couple, the total is far greater than $300,000, which may be more than they have saved in their retirement plan.

“The mattress starts to look a little lumpy,” Resnick noted.