Jay Jackson
Chairman & CEO
As someone who has spent decades thinking about financial planning, I’ve watched too many clients approach retirement with a dangerously incomplete playbook. Dr. Joseph Coughlin, the founder of MIT’s AgeLab, and his call for a longevity rewrite of America’s retirement curriculum isn’t just timely; it’s absolutely essential.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: we’re teaching people to prepare for a retirement that no longer exists.
For generations, retirement planning has been synonymous with financial planning. Save enough. Diversify your portfolio. Calculate your withdrawal rate. Don’t outlive your money. These remain crucial considerations, but they represent only a fraction of what it means to successfully navigate 20, 30, or even 40 years after leaving full-time work.
At Abacus Global Management, we’ve been witnessing this gap firsthand. The recent Longevity Preparedness Index from MIT AgeLab and John Hancock revealed that Americans scored just 60 out of 100 in overall longevity preparedness. More troubling, the lowest score—42 out of 100—was in the care domain. People simply don’t know who will care for them as they age or how they’ll afford that care.
This is what Coughlin means when he talks about needing a curriculum rewrite. We’re facing roughly 8,000 days after age 65, and we’re sending people into this extended life stage with a syllabus that barely scratches the surface.
The holistic approach that Coughlin advocates—and that we desperately need to embrace—extends far beyond the balance sheet. Yes, financial security matters. But so does social connection. So does purpose and identity after your career ends. So does your physical environment and whether your home can accommodate your changing needs. So does having honest conversations with family about care preferences before a crisis forces those decisions.
The traditional retirement model was built for a different era: retire at 65, enjoy a brief period of leisure, and then decline. That narrative is obsolete. Today’s retirees are redefining what this life stage looks like. Some continue working by choice. Others launch second careers or businesses. Many are seeking meaning, contribution, and self-actualization rather than endless vacation.
Yet our retirement education hasn’t caught up with this reality. We’re still using a curriculum designed for a 10-15 year retirement to prepare people for what might be a 30-40 year journey requiring multiple pivots and reinventions.
What would a rewritten curriculum look like? It would teach people to think beyond the financial portfolio to what Coughlin calls the “social portfolio”—the relationships and connections that sustain us. It would prepare people for the psychological transition of leaving behind work identity. It would encourage planning for where and how to live, not just whether you can afford to live. It would normalize conversations about care, aging in place, and end-of-life wishes long before they become urgent.
Most importantly, it would frame longevity not as a problem to solve but as an opportunity to design. This isn’t about adding years to life; it’s about adding life to years.
At Abacus Global Management, we’re committed to expanding what’s possible for people as they age to become true longevity planning partners for our clients. Because if we’re honest, the greatest risk our clients face isn’t market volatility—it’s facing an extended lifetime unprepared for everything that means.
It’s time for our entire industry to embrace this holistic vision. The retirement curriculum needs its longevity rewrite—and the students are already in class.
