Ingram's July 2026

tirement, there may be several transitions. This idea is increasingly visible among younger generations as well. The popu larity of “micro-retirements”—temporary career breaks used for travel, caregiving, education or personal renewal—suggests that workers are already experiment ing with more flexible life structures. For much of the 20th century, retire ment planning focused on having enough to live on. In a 100-year-life framework, time becomes equally important. Today, people are asking: How long do I want to work? How healthy do I expect to be? What relationships matter most? What kind of legacy do I want to create? These are not strictly financial ques tions, yet they increasingly drive finan cial decisions. The most significant shift may be psy- chological. Retirement once represented an end point; today it increasingly represents a transition point. That distinction changes the way people save, invest, work and live. It also changes the role of advisers. The future retirement professional may spend less time discussing portfolios and more time helping clients navigate choices, including where you’ll live, whether you’ll still work, whether you’re still caring for parents (and who might end up caring for you), contributions to grandchildren for college or buying a home–the factors are almost limitless. Those questions are difficult be cause they involve uncertainty. They are also unavoidable because longer lives create more possibilities. The old retirement model asked whe- ther you had enough money to stop work- ing. The new model asks whether you have enough resources—financial, physical, social and emotional—to design another chapter. That may be the defining retire ment challenge of the coming decades: Not preparing for the end of work, but preparing for what comes after. And if Americans are increasingly living 90- or even 100-year lives, that chapter may be far longer, more active and more consequential than previous generations ever imagined. More Than Money A New Definition

gevity is paramount.”

lion to more than $100 trillion.

“People now stay invested in pub lic and private equities much longer, because that’s what’s going to give you the highest likelihood of a successful outcome,” Battmer said. He is quick to note the ride is not smooth: “At any given moment, a dislocation can occur. Over the last 25 years, we’ve had three different 30 percent pullbacks.” On the strictly financial side of the ledger, Battmer argues that one variable remains chronically underweighted in retirees’ thinking: taxes. “The biggest trend line is to prop erly manage tax optimization, which is so often overlooked,” he said. “If you’re only looking at what you want to take out, that’s a misfire 100 percent of the time, because you’re not optim- izing the fact that there are lots of ways to minimize your tax obligations with this fund you’ve worked hard to ac cumulate.” Unlike market returns, he notes, that variable is entirely within a retiree’s control. But the longevity era is stretch ing the adviser’s job description well beyond allocation and tax tables, says Scott Boswell, who joined MTC Hold ing Corporation, the parent company of Midwest Trust, after a career spent advising institutions, families and busi ness owners—and after a brief retire ment of his own. “The best advisers aren’t simply managing investments,” Boswell said. “They’re helping clients navigate ma jor life transitions. That means having conversations about family dynamics, charitable giving, business succession, legacy planning and how financial re sources can help accomplish what mat ters most.” For the executives and business owners who make up much of the re gion’s wealth-holding class, the longev ity math collides with a habit of mind that Battmer sees constantly—and con siders the single costliest error in retire ment planning. “The biggest thing—it happens all the time—is that people disproportion The Executive Blind Spot

That transfer has generated enor mous attention within the wealth-man agement industry. Yet the story is more complicated than inheritance alone. Longer lives mean longer retire ments. Longer retirements mean more spending. Medical costs, long-term care expenses and caregiving needs may consume a larger portion of accu mulated wealth than many families have previously anticipated. The transfer will occur—nothing will stop that—but the timing, size and beneficiaries may differ substantially from expectations. Take housing, for example. For years, residential development focused heavily on first-time buyers and family formation. Now a different demograph ic force is emerging. Older Americans are downsizing, aging in place, mov ing closer to family members, seeking walkable environments or evaluating senior-living options. Analysts have long described this demographic trend as a “silver tsunami” affecting housing demand nationwide. That shift influences everything from suburban housing inventory to multifamily development and sen ior-living construction. For commer- cial developers, retirement has be- come a real-estate story. Perhaps the most important change is conceptual. For generations, retire ment planning focused primarily on investment performance. Today’s chal lenge is longevity. A 65-year-old can reasonably expect retirement to span decades rather than years. That changes everything—start ing with the oldest rule of thumb in the book. “The classic model—you’re 65 years old, so 65 percent in bonds—has been intensely flawed from the get-go,” Batt mer said. “And it’s more pronounced now as the fastest-growing demograph ic nears retirement with longer life times. You don’t know how much time you have left, so tilting into the aggres sive side to support that potential lon The New Longevity Business

55

I ngr am ’ s

Kansas City’s Business Media

July 2026