There’s a version of later life that most of us picture: time with family, freedom from work, the chance to enjoy what you’ve spent decades building. And for many people, that picture is achievable. But getting there, and staying there, requires planning that goes well beyond the early years of retirement.
Later life brings its own distinct financial challenges:
- making sure income remains sustainable,
- preparing for the possibility of care costs,
- protecting your independence, and
- ensuring the people around you have the authority and information they need to help if circumstances change.
A financial adviser helps you build wealth, protect it, structure it, and draw on it with confidence, for as long as you need it.
Living longer than you might think
Life expectancy in the UK has increased significantly. According to the Office for National Statistics, a woman aged 65 today can expect to live a further 22.7 years on average, and a man a further 20 years, meaning retirement could comfortably span two decades or more. Girls born in the UK today are projected to live to over 90 on average.
The Centre for Ageing Better reports that over 10 million people in the UK, nearly one in five, are now aged 65 or over, with the number aged 80 and over set to more than double over the next 40 years. This is a profound demographic shift with significant financial implications for anyone planning how their money needs to work in later life.
A retirement income that looks adequate at 65 may look very different at 80, particularly as needs change, costs rise, and the ability to manage finances independently can alter. Getting the structure right from the outset, reviewed regularly, is essential.
Making income last
One of the central challenges of later life planning is ensuring your money doesn’t run out before you do. Research by Aviva and Age UK found that only half of mid-retirees aged 65–75 felt confident their pension savings would last for the rest of their lives, and almost two thirds did not believe there was enough support available for managing financial needs as they age .
This is where ongoing financial advice earns its value. The decisions around how to draw down pension income: how much to take, from which sources, in what order, are not one-off choices. They require regular review as circumstances change. Drawing too heavily from pension savings too early can have serious long-term consequences: Aviva’s research warns that pensioners withdrawing at a rate of more than 7% from age 75 are at significant risk of depleting their pots prematurely.
A financial adviser models these scenarios, adjusts the plan as needed, and helps ensure that spending and income remain in sustainable balance, giving you the confidence to enjoy your money rather than worrying about whether it will last.
Planning ahead for care
Care costs are one of the most significant and least planned-for financial risks in later life. Age UK estimates that 2 million people aged 65 and over in England currently have unmet needs for care and support. With the population aged 85 and over growing faster than any other age group, this challenge is only going to grow.
Residential care in the UK can cost anywhere from £30,000 to over £70,000 per year depending on location and the level of care required. For many people, this is not a cost their pension income alone can absorb, yet relatively few families have made any specific provision for it.
A financial adviser can help you think through the options: whether that means setting aside a specific reserve, reviewing property and asset values, exploring insurance products, or simply ensuring the overall financial plan is resilient enough to absorb care costs if they arise. The earlier these conversations happen, the more choices are available.
Lasting Power of Attorney: the document too many people are missing
One of the most important and most overlooked steps in later life planning is putting a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) in place. An LPA is a legal document that allows you to appoint someone you trust to manage your financial affairs and make decisions about your health and welfare if you become unable to do so yourself.
Despite its importance, Canada Life research found that four in five UK adults, including 77% of those aged 55 and over, have not registered an LPA. Without one, even a spouse or adult child has no automatic legal authority to manage your accounts, pay your bills or make decisions about your care. The alternative is applying to the Court of Protection for a deputyship: a slow, costly and stressful process that places enormous additional burden on families at an already difficult time.
A financial adviser will flag the importance of an LPA as part of any later life plan, and can work alongside your solicitor to ensure both financial and health-and-welfare versions are in place while you have full mental capacity to set them up. Like a will, an LPA is one of those documents that is vastly easier to create before it is needed than after.
Simplifying your finances
Later life is also a natural moment to simplify. Many people accumulate a complex array of financial products over decades: multiple pension pots from different employers, various ISAs and savings accounts, investment portfolios that have drifted from their original purpose, protection policies that may no longer be appropriate.
Bringing these together into a clearer, more manageable structure serves several purposes. It makes your finances easier to oversee, reduces the risk of anything being overlooked or forgotten, potentially lowers costs through consolidation, and makes it significantly easier for those who may need to help you manage your affairs in the future.
Peace of mind is consistently one of the most valued benefits of financial advice, and there is a particular kind that comes from knowing your finances are organised, understood, and in good shape.
Having the family conversations
Later life planning is rarely just about the individual. It involves families: children, spouses, sometimes siblings, who may need to be involved in decisions, who will be affected by what you do or don’t put in place, and who deserve to understand your wishes.
These conversations can be genuinely difficult to initiate. Talking about declining health, potential care needs or what happens when you die requires a willingness to confront things most of us would prefer to avoid. A financial adviser can help facilitate these discussions, bringing a calm, neutral presence and the practical information that makes them productive rather than fraught.
It’s also about making sure family members are prepared. Knowing where important documents are kept, understanding the basics of your financial arrangements, being clear about your wishes around care. These are gifts you give your family when you handle them proactively rather than leaving them to be discovered at crisis point.
The value of continuity
Perhaps more than at any other stage of life, later life demands an ongoing advisory relationship rather than a one-off plan. Circumstances change:
- health,
- family dynamics,
- tax rules,
- income needs.
A plan that was right at 68 may need to look quite different at 78.
Good financial advice at this stage of life is about consistency, continuity and the confidence that comes from knowing someone with expertise is keeping an eye on the bigger picture. As one adviser puts it, the goal is clarity and structure, the kind that lets you live the life you want, on your own terms, for as long as possible.
That’s what planning for later life is really about.
The value of investments can go down as well as up, and you may not get back what you invest. This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change. Please speak to a qualified financial adviser to discuss your personal circumstances.