I’ll ask you something that most financial conversations never get around to:

What if you don’t die when you think you will?

Not a comfortable question, but possibly the most important one in financial planning right now.

Because here’s the reality. A healthy 60-year-old today has a very real chance of living into their 90s. Possibly beyond. Medical advances, better nutrition, improved early diagnosis. The trajectory is clear, we are living longer than any generation before us.

Yet when I sit down with successful people, business owners, senior executives, professionals who have done everything right, almost none of them have a plan built for a 30 or 35-year retirement.

They have a plan built for the retirement their parents had.

The plan that was never meant to go this far

I think about my dad a lot when it comes to this. He worked hard his whole life, and passed away a few months after his 60th birthday, before he ever got to retire. His nest egg sat there, waiting for a future that never came.

That experience taught me something I carry into every client conversation. We often plan for a version of life that may never arrive and fail to plan for the version that actually does.

The version where you’re 82, still sharp, still engaged, still wanting to travel and experience and give. The version where your wealth needs to work for three decades, not one.

Most retirement plans are built for a sprint. Real retirement is a marathon. Sometimes it’s an ultra.

If you retire at 62 and live to 95, your retirement lasts 33 years. Longer than most people’s entire careers.

Now ask yourself honestly: does your financial plan reflect that possibility? Because if it doesn’t, you’re not really planning. You’re hoping.

The change nobody is talking about enough

As we covered in our recent masterclass (you can watch the full session here), from April 2027, most unused pension funds will be brought into the scope of inheritance tax. For years, many people have quietly relied on their pension as a tax-efficient way to pass wealth to the next generation. That assumption is now off the table.

It creates urgent, practical questions. Which assets do you draw on first? How does this reshape your estate planning? And critically, are the people around you aware of what’s changing?

For those with a genuine longevity plan in place, this shift may matter less than they fear. If your wealth is designed to fund a 30-year retirement, there may be relatively little left untouched anyway. The opportunity is in understanding exactly how it plays out for your specific situation, before the clock runs down.

The people who navigate this well won’t be the ones who knew the most. They’ll be the ones who planned the earliest.

Wealth only becomes meaningful when it’s connected to how you live

One of the great ironies I see in this profession is that the people best at building wealth are often the worst at spending it. The habits that made them successful, discipline, delayed gratification, prudence, can work against them in retirement. They save when they should spend. They hold back when they should be living.

Good planning creates permission. It shows you what’s possible, what’s sustainable, what’s genuinely yours to enjoy. It replaces vague anxiety with clarity.

The goal isn’t just not running out of money. It’s making sure your wealth goes the distance and so do you.

So, what now?

The question isn’t whether you can afford to retire. For most of the people we work with, the answer to that is already yes.

The question is whether your plan is built for the full life ahead of you. Whether it accounts for the 30-year version. Whether it’s adapting to the changes coming in 2027. Whether your wealth is genuinely connected to how you want to live.

That’s the conversation we have at Henwood Court. And it changes things.

Important notes

This is a purely educational document to discuss some general investment-related issues. It does not in any way constitute investment advice or arranging investments. It is for information purposes only; any information contained within it is the opinion of the authors and may change without notice. Past financial performance is no guarantee of future results.

Products referred to in this document

Where specific products are referred to in this document, it is solely to provide educational insight into the topic being discussed. Any analysis undertaken does not represent due diligence on or recommendation of any product under any circumstances and should not be construed as such.