America is not ready for its own longevity crisis — and 2026 is the wake-up call

Americans are living longer than ever before, which is a remarkable achievement. But making those additional years healthy, secure, and fulfilling will require better planning across households, retirement systems, employers, and communities.

In 2026, the oldest baby boomers will turn 80. This demographic milestone will test whether our financial, health, housing, care, community, and social systems are prepared for what most people want: to age well at home. Today, most Americans are far from ready. According to the National Council on Aging, roughly 80% of households with adults age 60 and older lack the resources to cover long-term care costs or weather a financial emergency, exposing a widening longevity readiness gap.

The vast majority will require some level of ongoing care or support, yet few plan for it. Many mistakenly believe Medicare will cover long-term care costs. The planning gap extends far beyond finances. The homes people hope to age in are often unsuitable— with less than 5% of U.S. homes having basic accessibility features; and just 18% of older adults making modifications to support aging in place. With the 65+ population projected to rise from 61 million in 2024 to more than 80 million by 2040, these challenges will only intensify.

The common thread: we spend our adult lives thinking about the financial aspects of retirement, giving limited consideration for what else we will need to navigate the decades that may follow.

Addressing this reality requires expanding retirement planning to include longevity preparedness. Taking this approach provides a holistic lens that aligns finances, health, housing, care, community, and social connections across what may potentially be a 30+ year retirement life stage. The Milken Institute’s report Longevity Ready: A Systems Approach to Aging Well at Home frames this challenge as systemic and provides a practical blueprint: build awareness earlier, improve access to resources, and strengthen private-public collaboration.

Financial institutions play a critical role. Longevity, wealth, and retirement planning are deeply interconnected, and this sector has both a responsibility and a business imperative to prepare clients for longer and more complex financial needs.

The 2025 Longevity Preparedness Index from John Hancock and the MIT AgeLab, along with findings from the 2025 Manulife John Hancock Financial Resilience and Longevity Report highlight a clear truth: financial preparedness is necessary but is no longer sufficient on its own. Americans are entering what could be 30- to 40-year retirements with meaningful gaps in preparedness, particularly around care, health, and the non‑financial factors — such as social connections and purpose — that shape quality of life. Better support and planning to elevate that broader view is one of the most important shifts we can make.

Longevity planning cannot sit with individuals or financial institutions alone. The system we build to support planning for retirement and longer lifespans needs to be a collective effort spanning health care, employers, financial institutions, advocacy and community-based organizations, and government agencies. The Milken Institute’s Longevity Ready report outlines three key strategies to create an ecosystem among these stakeholders to enable planning for aging well at home:

• Develop coordinated, vetted information hubs that simplify navigation across health, finances, home modifications, technology, and care.
• Use targeted touchpoints to prompt action — open enrollment, annual exams, and mortgage renewals — to spark timely planning conversations.
• Reframe aging as a life stage of capability and purpose rather than decline, encouraging earlier conversations across families, workplaces, and communities. Today, most planning begins only when a crisis hits. There is a better way.

Beyond institutions, communities are essential. More than 26 million Americans aged 50+ now live alone, increasing the risks of isolation and gaps in support. Age-friendly communities, volunteer networks, intentional intergenerational programs, and naturally occurring retirement communities can provide connection, digital literacy, and practical help to allow more adults to age well at home.

As the oldest boomers reach the age of 80, the mismatch between lifespan (total years lived) and health span (years lived in good health)– — a 12.4-year gap — will only become increasingly visible. Women can expect to live roughly 14 years in poor health, men about 11. Households are already facing rising out-of-pocket healthcare costs, while communities are starting to experience strain across housing, transportation, and social services.

Living longer should be an exciting and positive possibility rather than a source of stress for families and communities. To support a positive outcome for Americans, we must expand retirement planning into longevity planning and build systems that support Americans to age with security, confidence, and dignity.

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