The Insurance Sector’s Longevity Strategy

In preparation for their Health and Demography Conference next week, The Geneva Association’s latest report, “Insurance and the Longevity Economy: Navigating Protection in the Era of 100-Year Lives,” delves into the huge demographic shifts reshaping our world. As life expectancy rises, birth rates decline, and countries’ demographic pyramids morph into never-before-seen shapes, societies face unprecedented challenges — and opportunities.

For the insurance industry, this longevity revolution demands a re-evaluation of traditional models. “It necessitates introspection from life and health insurers,” writes the Geneva Association, “ to help redefine their relevance in an unfolding risk landscape that is likely to be vastly different from that of the 20th century.”

The Demographic Revolution We’re In

In the middle of the 20th century, the global population was approximately 2.5 billion people. Today, it exceeds 8 billion, more than three times as much. Life expectancy rose from 46 years in 1950 to 74 years in 2025. In many OECD countries, it’s now reaching well beyond 80. In parallel, fertility rates have more than halved, approaching the replacement level where populations remain steady (2.1 children per woman).

These trends result in an inversion of the traditional demographic pyramid, into a more generationally-balanced square. That means an ageing population with fewer working-age individuals to support it, and puts big new pressures on our old health systems and financial structures. The Geneva Association’s report wants to offer a roadmap for building more resilient longevity economies – that empower individuals, strengthens financial security, and redefines insurance for a world where people are living longer than ever before.

SO WHAT? The global pension protection gap now exceeds USD 1 trillion annually. So the world needs to find new regulatory frameworks to attract capital for savings, annuities, and health insurance solutions. The status quo isn’t a viable alternative.

The Perception vs. Preparedness Paradox

The report examines public perceptions of longevity. What do people see as the risks and how do they evaluate their own levels of preparedness for navigating life’s lengthening horizons? Based on a survey of 15,000 individuals across 12 countries, life-, health-, and wealthspans are seriously misaligned – and so are people’s assessment of their own positions.

Over two thirds of respondents express concerns about their access to healthcare, the adequacy of retirement savings, and the robustness of public safety nets. But their self-reported preparedness in all these areas is unexpectedly – and undeservedly – optimistic. So how does the industry reconnect longevity awareness into individual action?

Perceptions of longevity also differ between developed and developing nations, the research reveals. Individuals in developing countries generally overestimate their likely life expectancy, while those in developed countries underestimate it. The UK and US are the only exceptions, where people’s estimations reflect reality.

Aligning Lifespans, Healthspans and Wealthspans

Increased longevity and new medical treatments are allowing people to work beyond traditional retirement ages. The result is an ageing workforce reshaping labour market demographics. In the US, the labour force participation rate for the 65+ rose from 27% to 35% in the two decades between 2003 and 2023. The same trend holds in Europe, with a doubling of employment rates of those aged 65 to 74 from 10% to 22% over the same period. Our 20th century rules and frameworks for defining retirement age are increasingly obsolete.

The report adds the concepts of “health span”—the years an individual spends in good health—to “wealth spans”—the duration of financial independence. Currently, these are misaligned with increasing lifespans. Too many people experience extended periods of health challenges and/ or financial insecurity. The insurance industry is calling for new, longevity-ready approaches that integrate both maintaining health and financial planning.

Many pension systems, particularly pay-as-you-go models, face sustainability challenges due to the killer combination of longer retirements and fewer active contributors. These were designed around demographic pyramids that are fast disappearing. The next reality is increasingly true: the onus of funding retirements increasingly falling on individuals. Yet how many people have long-term savings strategies in place?

So what? Family, insurance, and government were ranked in the survey as the top three institutions trusted to help prepare for increased longevity. But getting younger adults’ to engage in time with the insurance sector and its services is seen as a challenge. The sector is beginning to awaken to the need to start designing simpler, more relevant products that speak to people at earlier, and more consistently, across many more different stages of life. That accompany them across the life course of longer lives, rather than just being called upon towards in our later years.

“We’re flipping the script on longevity planning for the 35–40 crowd,” Sanjeev Kapur of MetLife is quoted in the report as saying. “By offering financial products with elder care value-added services that can be offered to their parents, we’re making the distant future tangible today. It’s not just about their retirement anymore – it’s about safeguarding their parents’ golden years. Suddenly, longevity isn’t a far-off concept; it’s a present reality they can invest in and see the benefits of right now.

From Covering Death to Managing Longevity

The evolving demographic landscape presents a unique opportunity for insurers to redefine and expand their roles. Life insurance used to provide protection against untimely death, known as mortality risk. Today, says the Geneva Association, the majority share of the life insurance business concentrates on navigating longevity risks. This protects people against outliving their savings through annuities, private pension insurance, or saving investment plans.

Traditionally focused on mitigating risk, insurers can now expand to a much broader role and become real partners in longevity planning. This could include developing hybrid solutions integrating longevity, mortality, and health management – right across our newly extended life courses. Enhanced group healthcare plans could emphasize preventive healthcare, while more flexible savings products could usefully blur the lines between financial accumulation and decumulation phases, and reflect the more fluid reality of today’s career trajectories and (un)retirements.

So what? The longevity opportunity invites insurers to create products and services that respond to people’s concerns and risks – at every age. And design innovative risk-reward models that complement traditional indemnity solutions. By proposing integrated health + wealth strategies, insurers could combine protection, savings, and services, breaking the traditional barriers between ‘health and life’ businesses and ‘financial accumulation and decumulation’ departments. In building preparedness for our longer lives to come, integration will be increasingly part of smart longevity strategies.

Building Longevity Readiness in the Insurance Sector

The report suggest a range of actions to get prepared for this new era of longevity – and help countries, companies and individuals prepare.

The Accumulation Years

1. Expand linkages between life insurance and health.
2. Flex. Make savings products more flexible.
3. De-risk healthspans to help boost years at work.

The Decumulation Years

1. Combine longevity, mortality, and health risks into new multi-risk products.
2. Rethink long-term care insurance and innovate with novel offerings.
3. Bolster a fourth pension pillar that blends part-time work and part-time retirement.

Interfacing with Public Policy

1. Play a bigger role in longevity literacy. Access to independent financial advice in its traditional sense remains limited to the wealthy.
2. Revisit the use of data in insurance. Clear and level-headed policy dialogue is needed to balance personalised protection and fairness.
3. Coordinate with public policymakers. National- and international-level dialogue between insurers and policymakers is vital, focusing on solvency standards, taxation, social care, and public-private insurance solutions to ensure sustainable outcomes for individuals and societies.

A Call to Action

The Geneva Association’s report wants to be “a clarion call for the insurance industry to adapt to the realities of a longevity society. By embracing innovation, fostering collaboration, and focusing on aligning life, health, and wealth spans, insurers can transform the challenges of increased longevity into opportunities.”

The longevity revolution is reshaping the fabric of societies everywhere. For the insurance sector, this transformation offers a pivotal moment to lead with innovation and collaboration. That would help ensure that our longer lives are not feared as a time of pain, penury or purposelessness, but as a treasured gift of years.

Longevity Literacy – A Glossary

The report uses a number of terms people aren’t necessarily familiar with. Aligning on terms and concepts will help build longevity literacy – in every sector and company.

• Longevity: Extended life spans, emphasising the biological ageing that impacts health and the quality of extra years of life.
• Longevity Society: Societies with a rising proportion of people living longer, requiring a comprehensive approach to life shaped by biology, lifestyle, environment, and wealth.
• Longevity Economy: the economic and social opportunities that emerge when the factors above are effectively managed.
• Healthspan: the duration of an individual’s life during which they remain in good health.
• Wealthspan: the period during which an individual maintains financial independence. Equipping individuals to optimise both the asset accumulation and decumulation phases of their lives.