BlackRock’s Fink Gets the Retirement Crisis Two-Thirds Right
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made news recently when he warned that a global retirement crisis is looming. I don’t disagree, but I would say that Fink missed a key point.
There are three key factors in the retirement equation:
- Life span
- Wealth span
- Health span
Fink, in his annual letter to investors, correctly identifies the discrepancy between 1 and 2. People around the world are living longer on average, but many of them do not have the means to afford those extra years. That’s a huge problem.
But he does not address 3. It’s one thing to have extra years, but the quality of life in those years is just as important. Our goals should include enabling longer health spans — also known as healthy longevity.
Why is it important? To state the obvious, extra years are not a gift if you spend them battling chronic disease and illness. But increasing our health span also extends our wealth span — if you’re healthier longer, you incur fewer costs.
In his letter, Fink describes the mismatch between what Americans are saving and what they will need as “a problem so big and urgent that government and corporate leaders [need to] stop business as usual [and] step out of their silos and sit around the same table to find a solution.”
He’s absolutely right. We’re sort of sleepwalking into this emergency. Action is needed.
My worry is that if our leaders act, their solutions could be perceived as pitting the old versus the young. Some might say “You’re taking resources away from the younger generations to support the older generation, and that’s not fair.”
It’s a dangerous argument, because no one has more at stake in this debate than the younger generations. Older adults are living longer now, but younger generations are expected to live even longer. So the problem of aligning life span, wealth span and health span will be even more acute in 30 or 40 years than it is now if we don’t act.
Without solutions, the group that will be affected the most by the retirement crisis — and have to live with it the longest — is young people.
Bob Kramer is broadly recognized as one of senior living’s most influential and high-profile thought leaders and connectors. With over 40 years of industry leadership, he has earned the reputation of “agent provocateur” in the seniors housing and care industry and aging services field. He has been described as an ice-cutter and scout in identifying industries and trends that will disrupt the future of seniors housing, aging services, and aging more broadly.
