Planning for the Future

21st century welfare challenges

Consumer awareness of the need to prepare for the future is key to the success of companies in the financial services sector and provides a major challenge for the 21st century. A fundamental problem facing everyone of working age is that, on present trends, many people will not have saved enough to enjoy the retirement they expect. Increased life expectancy coupled with decreasing birth rate means that, in effect, fewer workers will be paying, via taxes, for more older people.

This also includes people currently in their forties or fifties, in part-time, temporary or casual work, or people who have taken time out to raise a family as well as those with lower incomes than planned. Many of these people will not have saved enough to retire comfortably, and many will also be obliged to care for elderly parents in their seventies or eighties.