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ARTICLE · 31 OCTOBER 2023

Is Succession Planning A Dying Art?

Macfarlanes LLP
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It is no secret that life expectancy is increasing. Declining infant mortality, the establishment of the National Health Service and continued improvements to public health mean that individuals born...

United KingdomWealth Management
Jennifer Smithson
Jennifer Smithson
Paul Hardwick
Paul Hardwick
George Badger
George Badger

It is no secret that life expectancy is increasing. Declining infant mortality, the establishment of the National Health Service and continued improvements to public health mean that individuals born in the UK in 2011 can expect to reach almost twice the age of those born in 1841. 18.6% of the UK population was aged 65 years or older in 2021 up from 16.4% in 2011 and just 10.8% in 1950.

At the same time, the health of those over 65 is improving. This means that our measure of old age is changing. Men (whose life expectancy continues to trail behind women) who were 70 in 2017 reported similar levels of limiting longstanding illnesses as men who were 57 in 19971. This suggests that as well as simply living longer, people are losing capacity – a crucial milestone in the context of wealth and succession planning – at a considerably older age.

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