⏳ Reading Time: 8 minutesLonger life expectancy means retirement could last three decades or more. That makes planning for income, investment risk and flexibility more important than ever. Our special contributor and Daily Telegraph columnist David Stevenson explores more.
Retirement used to be simple to understand. Until just a few decades ago, your job provided you with a pension (probably a defined benefit scheme), which meant you could retire at 65, get a steady income, and then enjoy the rest of your life. No need to worry about longevity risk or which income drawdown scheme to buy into.
Today, defined benefit pension schemes are largely a thing of the past outside the public sector, and we’re all living much longer. Now investors worry about the size of their pension pot, and whether they have enough money to last them all the way through retirement.
There is an upside, though. Your choices, enabled by digital technology, have expanded dramatically, bringing their own challenges. With a bit of professional advice, you probably need to think carefully now about different strategies and options. Some traditional options, like annuities, remain popular, but as retirement lifespans increase, other options are becoming equally appealing and easier to implement digitally. This is set against the backdrop of an increasingly digitally engaged 60-something investor base – Lloyds recently surveyed this age cohort and found that 86% of UK adults aged 60 and over were online in 2025, up from 72% in 2016, a nearly 20-percentage-point gain in a decade.
