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EnquireThe way later life is currently being portrayed is not realistic, aspirational or reflective of how people can and wish to spend their retirement. Riverstone challenge current, outdated portrayals of retirement and encourage people to plan proactively for retirement, feel comfortable discussing their financial situation, and have greater confidence in seeking advice.
Affordability, or peoples perception of this, often hinders them in planning for later life, whilst lack of knowledge and understanding of the options and what is financially achievable holds them back.
Riverstone is here to help.
Retirement living options are a key part of financial planning, but which to choose? Consumer duty urges advisors to tailor advice to their clients' unique needs, so being able to knowledgably discuss the options on how and where clients plan to live in retirement is vitally important.
But more importantly, is understanding what these options mean in regard to client’s lifestyles and wellbeing. It’s all well and good living in a large house or retaining the family home but if that comes at the cost of little “income” restricting their lifestyle or is detrimental to their mental wellbeing or simply reduces their enjoyment of retirement, should it be challenged?
Riverstone looks to help you, and your clients, in understanding the available options and what they mean. Ultimately if they choose to join us then you’ll know they are in great hands.
Knowledge of retirement living could be considered invaluable by your clients, their parents or indeed their children – even you. Would you like to learn more?
There is a broad range of options at and through retirement, covering in-home assistance, assisted living, retirement villages and nursing homes to name a few. Each are very different and within those there are further nuances.
To simplify this, it can be broken into two main categories, firstly owning your own home (or potentially renting). This could be a house or apartment (no community or central support), some form of assisted living (owning an apartment in a community with a warden on site) or retirement living, typically “villages” (providing more community orientated facilities eg. café, gym or pool as well as a concierge).
Secondly, care homes & nursing homes. The former typically has a registered nurse, where help can be provided with feeding, changing etc. The latter is for people who require more medically focused care.
Riverstone is categorised as retirement living but challenges the norm and goes above and beyond in regards the entire offering.
Building (& retaining) wealth or spending it. What to advise?
Every client and each circumstance is different but usually it is a balance. Planning is obviously vitally important and with recent changes to inheritance tax (IHT) announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget, this triggered a significant shift in the advice that advisers are giving to their clients.
Many people are more cautious than necessary, frequently leaving behind large estates when they could have used those funds to enhance their own lives. By intentionally spending while still fit and able, it is possible to improve quality of life while also reducing the taxable estate.
One advantage of retirement properties offering a deferred management fee (DMF) is that this falls outside of the estate, hence being exempt from IHT. These DMFs are typically around thirty percent of the property sale price. So, for a £2 million pound property, £600,000 would fall outside the estate.
Equally these properties can offer different options to suit clients’ personal circumstances, such that costs can be fixed to provide certainty, or in line with inflation for those less bothered, whilst having a higher DMF can provide greater funds upfront to support their lifestyle now and through retirement.
Some of these options can have a significant impact on a clients plan and these can be modelled through cashflow planning to provide clients a clearer view of the potential opportunities available.
Reviewing clients financial options also impacts their lifestyle and wellbeing, which can be significantly different given the available choices.
Accessibility of luxurious lifestyle-focused retirement communities offering security, fixed-cost budgeting, and state of the art services such as pools, gyms, restaurants, cinemas and much more, can be shown to improve wellbeing and lifestyle in retirement.
Helping clients in reviewing cashflow planning options will demonstrate how different options not only affect their wealth but their lifestyle and wellbeing, which can be significantly different given the available choices.
Integrated retirement communities provide for a more convenient & engaging lifestyle.
New Zealand, Australia and the US are established markets of integrated retirement communities, forming a significant proportion (7% -14%) of homes for over-65s. The UK is a growing sector, having seen 19.1% growth in IRC residencies over five years, from 77,233 in 2019 to 91,977 in 2024.
In the long run average price inflation for Independent Retirement Communities with a Deferred Management Fee has outperformed the wider UK housing market – bucking the typical misconception that they would underperform. Their performance is also less volatile.
This model is attracting investment from large institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, Bupa, Octopus Healthcare and PIMCO, which could amount to £60bn over the next decade.
