Data & Research March 12, 2024

Most Americans Expect to Live Longer, Still Retire Around 67

Research from Corebridge and the Longevity Project find half of Americans want to live to 100, even as financial anxieties around how to do so run high.

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More than half (54%) of Americans say it’s their goal to live to 100, while generally still expecting to stop working full-time around the standard retirement age of 65 to 69, according to a new study from Corebridge Financial and the Longevity Project, a research and advocacy group partnered with organizations including Corebridge, the AARP and the Stanford Center for Longevity.

The desire to live longer and healthier lives is driven in large part by the desire to spend more meaningful time with friends and family (72% of respondents) and have new experiences (65% of respondents), says Terri Fiedler, president of retirement services at Corebridge Financial. But a longer life will also mean more planning and budgeting to make those goals a reality, she and the researchers note.

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Terri Fiedler

“The truth is that people don’t tend to think that much about their finances or planning,” Fiedler says. “We often spend more time planning for a vacation than we do planning for retirement.”

Fiedler notes that, despite early and mid-career generations envisioning longer lives at higher rates—63% of Gen Xers want to live to 100, and 59% of Millennials desire the same—there is a disconnect between that goal and their desire to quit work at today’s standard retirement age.

A plurality of people (40%) still plan to retire by age 65 to 69, meaning a potential for at least three decades in retirement, according to the survey. Of the remaining 60%, 26% believe they will need to work past age 70, 22% expect to retire between ages 62 and 64, and 12% envision quitting between ages 50 and 61.

Money Woes

Those desires, however, seem also to be causing financial anxiety, according to the findings. Fiedler notes that the research showed the majority of people (66%) fear running out of money in old age more than they fear death itself (34%). This, Fiedler says, is where employers can help participants by ensuring they have access to financial education tools, resources and financial advisers when applicable.

“Living to 100 and having a long life should be a rewarding experience,” she says. “To help clients remove some of that fear and anxiety would go a long way and might improve the number of people saying they want to live to 100, because they would feel more comfortable with the idea that they can afford to do it.”

Retirement plan providers, sponsors and advisers have a key role to play in helping people both reduce their financial anxiety and meet their goals—but the individual, of course, plays a role as well, she says. That’s where advancements in technology and improved workplace resources can contribute, not just in making planning available, but in improving engagement.

“Workplaces can host webinars on retirement, host workshops and provide planning tools,” she says. “They can consider participant rates, contribution rates, the demographics of their employees and work toward the personalization of messaging, depending on where someone is in their retirement planning.”

Access to an individual financial adviser beyond the plan, in Fiedler’s view, is also key to helping people reach their goals. Those professionals can act as a “coach” for a person to work through planning for things such as health care costs, or if there’s a market dip that affects funds intended for retirement.

“A financial professional does add the value of guiding people on how much you can put into retirement funds, which account to draw from first or whether to buy an annuity and which kind,” she says. “Beyond that, they can just help people feel more confident in those decisions.”

Personal Attention

Corebridge has a national network of advisers available to its plan sponsor clients—but Fiedler notes that not all plan sponsors feel comfortable referring participants to individual advisement. Instead, they may only offer up financial education within the plan and let participants make their decisions from there. Corebridge, Fiedler notes, will “respect the plan and their wishes” in those cases.

Whatever direction a plan sponsor takes, however, she notes that there is much work to be done, as people expect to, and potentially do, live longer. She points to longevity research that found only 24% of respondents think their current investment will last at least 30 years or as long as they need.

“That is a remarkably low number,” Fiedler says.

Meanwhile, 27% of respondents were very confident or extremely confident that they will not outlive their retirement savings, and 36% were very confident or extremely confident in their ability to manage their retirement savings to provide income for as long as they live. 

The white paper, “Funding Longer Lives,” listed action steps for individuals to work with their employers to prepare for longer lives. These included “refreshing their skillset, contributing to retirement savings plans, taking advantage of retirement education and engagement programs, and, in some cases, accessing financial professionals.”   

The study was conducted online May 2 through 11, 2023, by Morning Consult, among a sample of 2,284 U.S. adults ages 22 to 75, with household incomes and assets of at least $35,000 each.

Corebridge had more than $380 billion in assets under management and administration as of December 31, 2023.

Client Service March 12, 2024

OneDigital’s AI Experiment: A ‘Cheppy’ for Everyone

The advisory created an artificial intelligence-powered version of a retirement plan adviser to show the technology’s potential—while making it clear human advisers remain the top talent.

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Jason Chepenik is getting smarter with age. At least, the artificial intelligence version of him is.

Chepenik’s avatar, called Cheppy, was created by OneDigital last year and rolled out as an experiment at the advisory firm’s annual conference. Like all AI, Cheppy will evolve with use.

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Cheppy talks to Jason Chepenik and a colleague at OneDigital’s conference.

“I’m going to get smarter and smarter—the virtual me. And I’ll never eat,” jokes the human Chepenik, a senior vice president of retirement and wealth with OneDigital. “But the real version is the opposite.”

OneDigital, like many in the financial services and benefits space, is experimenting with the possibilities of AI. Last Wednesday, Mercer, a business of Marsh McLennan, released a global trends study finding that “redesigning work to incorporate AI and automation” is among the top five trends for HR leaders in 2024.

At OneDigital’s annual conference in February 2024, attendees were presented with Jason Chepenik on a large screen live via a video link—or so they thought. The Cheppy AI would often respond to them as an avatar, identifying itself as AI. Once attendees realized the setup, they were encouraged to ask questions a plan sponsor or participant might ask, ranging from 401(k) administration to health savings accounts, according to Chepenik.

“We introduced this as a way to show our teams how AI and innovative ideas can apply within the industries that OneDigital is in, be creative, have fun, and we can change the world by doing it,” he says.

Chepenik, who has often used fun to draw people into retirement planning and savings, had the idea of a virtual adviser years ago when he saw holograms being used in real-world examples. But the idea came to life through the recent explosion in AI.  

“You’re not just getting a chatbot to respond, but you’re looking at and seeing what is a real image of a person who’s responding based on the question asked, in my actual voice,” he says. “We all have challenges in our industry with different languages, and we’ve got challenges with on-demand. You can’t just do a webinar or a recorded webcast. With the majority of companies leveraging AI in some way today, this is just one example of how we’re expirementing with technology to determine how we can serve our clients as effectively as possible without comprimising the human element that is so valuable—especially in financial services.”

Still Human

Cheppy at OneDigital’s conference.

OneDigital and Chepenik made it clear they are not going to be rolling out virtual advisers to plan sponsors or participants any day soon. Rather, says Vinay Gidwaney, OneDigital’s chief product officer, the Cheppy experiment is a flashier example of many projects OneDigital is working on to leverage AI.

“We, as a firm, have decided to lean in on AI and build our own tools and experiment with these things and start to drive value with this technology,” he says. “Other areas [beyond Cheppy AI] are more focused on using the technology to super-power our people,” he says.

That may be automating processes such as reviewing and analyzing millions of insurance documents. It may be deploying large language models to help client-facing employees. Another place may be creating first drafts of common forms, such as requests for proposal, that humans will then refine or helping advisers stay up to date on regulations or compliance issues.

“This is not about replacing our client-facing folks,” Gidwaney says. “These are all things that we are working on to amplify the impact our teams can deliver for our clients, and the industry at large.”

Avatars like Cheppy, Gidwaney believes, may be more useful in video trainings that can be personalized or educational videos for employers on 401(k) plans and administration. He does not see avatars as a solution to personalized advice that, in the end, he believes requires an actual human touch.

“We’re in a very complex area, and people need real advice,” he says. “More importantly, they need a person who can help guide them in these financial challenges and life challenges.”

Chep At It

Cheppy—a childhood nickname of Chepenik—is a hopeful sign of what can be done with AI in the retirement realm, notes the human Chepenik. He says participant questions often do start with basics that can be answered in a personalized way with the appropriate inputs. These might be questions about how much to save, whether to convert savings into a Roth account, or how to deal with credit issues.

“There are some basic things that you can give an answer on that is not full investment advice,” Chepenik says.

To create Cheppy, the adviser went into a studio and filmed four 10-minute videos for his image; the voice imprint then came from a 30-minute podcast he had done. He notes that the technology could be used for other plan advisers, or even HR members or executives at a company.

Whatever the use case, it is an area Chepenik says he is going to be thinking about and experimenting with to help improve retirement plans and outcomes for clients, while making them laugh—ideally—along the way.

“There’s lots of ways to do it, and we were able to test it out,” he says. “Half the room thought it was real—they thought it was really me talking. It’s wild.”

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