The longevity blind spot: How advisors can change clients' thinking

By Elijah Nicholson-Messmer

Published November 11, 2025, 4:42 p.m. EST

Life expectancy is on the rise, but you wouldn't know it talking to American adults today. Research shows that middle-aged and older Americans consistently underestimate how long they're likely to live — a misconception with major implications for retirement planning.

But financial advisors may be able to help close that gap. A new study from the Center for Retirement Research found that certain interventions can significantly improve people's understanding of how long they'll actually live.

The study, which surveyed 1,950 individuals aged 45 to 70 in the first quarter of 2025, divided survey respondents into three groups: one control group and two intervention groups.

The control group read material that had nothing to do with life expectancy, survival rates or mortality trends. The first treatment group was shown information derived from Social Security death records about their likelihood of living to ages 90 and 100. The second treatment group was presented not only with survival probabilities, but also with information about increasing longevity across generations and how much longer people typically live than their parents or grandparents.

Researchers have observed that people — including 59% of participants in the study — often form their life expectancy beliefs on how long their parents or relatives lived, though the effects of that on one's own life expectancy had not been tested before.

Afterward, all the groups were asked to estimate how long they expected to live and their chances of reaching ages from 75 to 100.

Overall results from the experiment were mixed, with just a quarter of respondents altering their life expectancy estimates following the intervention. But researchers say the findings are especially pertinent for financial advisors. Here's why.

A unique group with exceptional trust in advisors

Whether participants were affected by the intervention came down to one major factor: What source of information informs their life expectancy estimates.

When asked what informs their view of life expectancy, respondents pointed to one of three major sources: a parent or relative's age of death (59%), a medical professional or financial advisor's opinion (26%) or media coverage of life expectancy (8%).

Only the second group — those whose life expectancy view is informed by professional advice — were significantly influenced by the intervention.

Among that group, those who received information about life expectancy from Social Security death records were eight percentage points more likely than the control group to say they will live at least until age 85.

Those who received additional information about how their life expectancy compared to their parents also increased their estimates, but not by as much.

"Providing simple material works just as well, if not better, as interventions with more detail," researchers wrote. "While neither intervention was particularly long, our results showed that merely providing some data — on the likelihood of living to specific ages — was enough to increase respondents' perceptions of surviving to older ages, and offering more data on mortality reductions over time did not improve outcomes."

Outside the lab, advisors tackle life expectancy every day

For advisors, a client's estimate of how long they'll live isn't just a data point — it's the foundation of their entire retirement plan. So what does this research mean for financial advisors working with older clients today?

Above all, an advisor should be mindful of what their client is basing their expectations on. Is it rooted in the mortality of older family members? Professional advice? Media coverage? Or something else entirely?

The answer to that question has major implications for how well they can expect their client to respond to information about life expectancy. For now, research shows that individuals see little change after being presented with mortality information, unless they already base their view on the opinions of professionals.

Within that group, it's still worth explaining what life expectancy really means in terms of individual outcomes.

"I always bring clients to longevityillustrator.org to get an accurate life expectancy reading, show them what joint life expectancy means and also that life expectancy is a probability curve," said Jeremy Keil, a financial advisor at Keil Financial Partners in New Berlin, Wisconsin. "Most people think life expectancy means death certainty. If they hear their life expectancy is 80, then they think "I will die at 80," yet you only die in the year of your life expectancy 3.7% of the time. It's almost guaranteed you won't die at your life expectancy."

Given that variability, many advisors err on the side of caution when it comes to estimating a client's life expectancy — if they estimate it at all.

Lora Hoff, a wealth manager at Wealth Partners Alliance in Dallas, said she runs every client's plan to age 100.

"I typically just cheerfully say that 'I prefer to plan to age 100, because I don't want to be the one to kill somebody off early.' Usually, the client just laughs about it, but if they press me on it, I say that 'If I plan for you to be fine to 100 and you end up not living that long, then you will just have more for your heirs, but if we plan too short, then nobody wants that result.'"

Given most people's predisposition to anecdotal evidence, other advisors find it helpful to offer examples of cases where people live far longer than the estimates would project.

"One example I share is one of my relatives in his late 90s with numerous comorbidities who remains alive and well," Nicole Sullivan, director of financial planning at Prism Planning Partners in Libertyville, Illinois. "He is a testament to the power of modern medicine. I remind clients that outlier circumstances like this can occur, and therefore, we take a conservative approach in our financial planning assumptions. Life can often surprise us!"

 

Elijah Nicholson-Messmer

 

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Advisors share go-to strategies for connecting with women clients

By Rob Burgess

Published May 23, 2025, 11:00 a.m. EDT

Updated May 27, 2025, 2:10 p.m. EDT

 

Natkin/natkinzu/stock.adobe.com

Women are set to control a growing share of U.S. wealth, and financial advisors who ignore them risk missing out on a $10 trillion opportunity.

These findings come from a new McKinsey study, "The New Face of Wealth," based on a survey of more than 13,000 U.S. and European investors, nearly half of them women who make financial decisions.

Assets controlled by U.S. women will reach $34 trillion by 2030, the report projects, up from $18 trillion in 2023. Today, advisors manage a smaller share of women's wealth (47%) than men's (55%), McKinsey found. Closing that gap could help advisors tap into $10 trillion in assets by 2030.

Encourage women to take the driver's seat in their financial plans

To first connect to prospective clients who are women, advisors need to meet them where they are. Cathleen Tobin, financial advisor at Moonbridge Financial Design in Rhinebeck, New York, said women clients often don't give themselves credit for how much they know about their finances, "because they believe they don't understand the financial world."

"Explaining concepts to them in plain language and answering their questions builds confidence and deepens the relationship further," she said.

Women benefit most from relationships with financial planners when their specific concerns and wishes are valued, they are empowered to meet their personal goals and they are affirmed or encouraged if they have pauses or detours on the way to meeting their goals, said Dawn C. Abernathy, a financial planner with Core Planning in Chesterfield, Missouri.

"Advisors can make women more welcome through meeting them at their level of investing expertise and educating them as a peer with transparency," she said.

Financial advisors need to empower women in their financial journeys, said Julia Lilly, founder of Ryerson Financial in Houston, Texas. This means encouraging them to take the driver's seat in their financial planning rather than relying on advisors as gatekeepers to their investment portfolios.

"Too often, women are led to believe that finance is too complicated for them, which discourages them from pursuing financial knowledge," she said. "I wholeheartedly reject this notion, as it allows the financial services industry to continue charging exorbitant service fees."

Tailor investment strategies for women

The interests, objectives and characteristics of women differ from their male counterparts, according to the McKinsey study. Women prioritize long-term security, transparent pricing and quality customer service over the pursuit of potentially speculative returns.

Advisors need to understand that women investors face inherently different challenges, including the possibility of being more risk-averse and the potential for higher health care costs through a longer retirement horizon, said Sarah Mouser, Managing Director of Financial Planning at Verdence Capital Advisors in Alexandria, Virginia.

"Both can lead to a greater chance of outliving their wealth due to longevity," she said.

With newer investors who are women, Gitanjali Kumar, financial planner at Worthique, said she starts with target-date funds in retirement accounts and simple vehicles like CDs, T-bills for nonretirement funds, progressively expanding to diversified ETFs. With higher net worth women clients, Kumar said they embrace recommended investment models and are open to alternative investments and separately managed accounts and tax-efficient investment strategies.

In her experience, women often care most about financial security and confidence, said Carla Adams, founder and financial advisor at Ametrine Wealth in Lake Orion, Michigan. Adams focuses on serving women, particularly those with equity compensation. When it comes to investing, she said she follows a straightforward philosophy: low-cost, broadly diversified index investing and strategic asset allocation.

"I don't chase fads or complexity — I believe in keeping things simple, effective and aligned with my clients' goals.

Build stronger connections by letting the client hold the floor

One common mistake advisors make with clients who are women? Speaking more than they listen.

"Women don't want to be 'talked at' — they want to be talked to," said Tori Ten Hagen, lead financial planner at Brindle & Bay in Dallas. "They want to be heard, understood and respected as the smart, capable decision-makers they are."

Put simply: Stop trying to prove you are the smartest in the room.

"Lead with empathy and curiosity," said Gloria García Cisneros, wealth manager at LourdMurray in Los Angeles, who specializes in serving women. "Ask questions and check in on their priorities, goals, challenges and current needs. Lead with education, and leave pauses if you are going through market updates or performance metrics. Don't dominate the conversation with financial jargon. As advisors, too often we treat that hour as our time to shine, when in reality, it is the client's one hour to be seen, heard and guided by their financial sounding board. Let it be about them more than anything."

Don't wait to start conversations

Women typically start working with financial advisors later in life than do men, according to the McKinsey study. In the U.S., 35% of women who hired an advisor did not do so until after age 45; for men, that number is just 28%.

Major life events are often a trigger for women to find an advisor whom they trust to help them navigate decisions with confidence. Katrina Soelter, vice president of financial planning at Equalis Financial in Los Angeles, grew up with a mother who worked and a father who stayed home. She said she knew she wanted to follow in her mom's footsteps. Today her practice focuses primarily on "high-earning female executives, particularly those with families."

"When their existing advisor isn't someone they trust, or when they have questions that the advisor isn't able to answer, they begin to look for a new relationship," she said.

Talking to women directly and inclusively, even when they are brought into a meeting by a partner, is essential, said Ten Hagen. So too is including them in the conversation well before they might be widowed or divorced.

"We know that many of today's joint planning conversations are tomorrow's solo decisions, and we aim to build trust well before that transition," she said.

Representation matters

Being an advisor who is also a woman makes a difference for many clients. Rose M. Price is a financial advisor at Vienna, Virginia-based VLP Financial Advisors, where four of the nine advisors are women, including a certified divorce financial analyst. She said while some women clients prefer to work with a woman advisor, and the firm is happy to accommodate those preferences, her "entire team is trained to listen actively and provide empathetic, personalized support."

Representation builds rapport, and having a diverse advisory team helps deliver not just financial advice, but genuine connection and long-term loyalty, said Ten Hagen.

"Women investors aren't some rare niche, they're the future of wealth," she said. "Firms that don't make room for them will be left behind."

There's always room to grow. Ayanna Alexander-Laine is a general partner at Freedom Trail Capital in Los Angeles. (Currently a doctoral candidate, she previously competed in the triple jump at the 2012 Olympics, won two Commonwealth Games medals and became a 16-time national champion.) She said having diversity at the table means more than having one or two different faces; it means making sure firms have advisors with different lived experiences, perspectives and approaches to risk and reward.

"If we want more women to feel like investing is for them, we need to build environments where they don't feel like guests, but like they belong," she said. "That starts with who's doing the advising."

The leader of an all-woman team, Kim Abmeyer, founder of Abmeyer Wealth Management in Dallas, also specializes in working with women.

"As women who are the breadwinners, have been stay-at-home moms and single moms, we have a perspective we can bring to conversations with other women that men just don't have," she said. "Having these diverse backgrounds allows us to provide a safe space for women to talk about money and help them develop or build on strategies to set them up for long-term success."

Women advisors know how to connect with women and feel a passion to support them achieve their goals, said Catherine Valega, a certified financial planner at Green Bee Advisory in Boston. Her firm focuses on "supporting breadwinner women" and now also offers tax planning and preparation for women.

"We know that female investors want to feel something," she said. "Listened to. Educated. Not spoken down to. The solution is to hire more women. It's not just about the numbers. It's about the whole person. Their values. Their loved ones. Their philanthropies. We just do it better. Period."

Diverse mindsets also sorely needed in financial services

Advisory teams also need to diversify in terms of mindset and communication style, said Joy Slabaugh, founder and wealth alignment strategist at the Financial Conflict Resolution Institute in Wilmington, Delaware.

"Women don't necessarily need to work with other women, but they do need advisors who can hold space for emotional nuance without defaulting to assumptions, performance metrics and jargon," she said.

Outreach is certainly important, but a condescending approach to landing women clients may quickly meet with failure. Lora J. Hoff, wealth manager at Wealth Partners Alliance in Dallas, said she has been "sometimes bothered by the obvious attempts to attract women investors, which seem to imply that we are somehow less able to understand investments or need a pink, sparkly flyer."

"If you have women — or at least empathetic and intelligent people — on your team, you can attract smart clients of either gender," she said.

 

Rob Burgess