Reports Highlight New Planning Horizon

Retirement planning is expanding beyond accumulation and preserving wealth in retirement, potentially starting as early as childhood, according to multiple reports. In “Next-Gen Wealth: New Opportunities for Families and Business Owners,” a report from the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, Trump Accounts—federal savings accounts for children under the age of 18 that launched in July—present an opportunity for long-term wealth building.

Guardian estimated that a child whose family contributes the maximum $5,000 annually to a Trump Account from birth and who later contributes $7,500 annually to a traditional IRA through age 65 could accumulate roughly $4.1 million for retirement, assuming a 7% net rate of return.

“New planning tools can be powerful when they are evaluated thoughtfully and in the context of a broader strategy,” said Nancy DeRusso, Guardian’s head of client solutions, in a statement. “Effective wealth management starts with a strong foundation. From that base, individuals can pursue opportunities to grow, transfer, and preserve wealth with greater confidence.”

A separate white paper published by Bquest, an end-of-life planning platform for financial advisers, argued that traditional retirement planning strategies neglect fundamental issues of retirement. “Retirement Planning is Broken: Why Longer Lives Require the Next Evolution of Financial Advice” stated that avoiding portfolio depletion leaves significant gaps in preparing clients for longevity, healthcare needs and caregiving challenges.

Both reports point to a growing industry conversation about whether financial planning should span a longer timeline, from helping families build wealth for children at birth to helping retirees navigate their expenses after leaving the workforce.

Starting Earlier, Ending Later

According to Guardian, Trump Accounts represent a shift from milestone-based planning to earlier wealth accumulation, using time as an investor’s most valuable asset.

The report noted that Trump Accounts are intended to complement, rather than replace, existing retirement accounts. Advisers may incorporate the accounts into broader estate and tax planning discussions alongside vehicles such as 529 plans, trusts and custodial accounts, each of which offers different tax benefits and levels of flexibility, depending on a family’s goals and financial circumstances.

While the Guardian report focused on the earliest stages of wealth-building, Bquest argued that advisers also need to rethink the other end of the planning timeline.

According to Bquest, traditional retirement planning focuses heavily on making sure clients do not outlive their assets, but it often fails to address how those assets will be used throughout a retirement potentially lasting decades.

The paper argued that healthcare expenses, long-term care needs, caregiving responsibilities and cognitive decline have a significant impact on financial outcomes, yet frequently receive less attention than investment performance or withdrawal rates.

Retirees face a “consumption paradox,” according to the report, where an overemphasis on preserving assets can lead them to spend less than intended and end retirement with more wealth than they had anticipated.

“Every evolution in this profession happened because client needs outgrew the existing model,” said Bquest CEO Lauren Clough, in a statement. “Conventional retirement planning wasn’t built to fail; it was built for a shorter, simpler version of later life than the one most people are actually going to live.”