“You do feel responsible” – How we can support age inclusion

When thinking about what that might mean, financial preparedness for retirement is probably the first thing that comes to mind—having enough saved to achieve your retirement goals. That’s why we provide an award-winning* financial advice^{^} offering, and an array of high-quality education tools to help people plan for and live out a great retirement.

But ageing and retiring well means more than just having a solid financial base. Above all, most people simply want to live with purpose, feel useful and be treated as such, no matter how one’s ideal twilight years look—to feel included. We can all help older people do this and, as a super fund, that includes us. 

This is particularly important with an ageing local and global population. According to stats gathered by the United Nations, there were 703 million people aged 65 or over globally in 2019, projected to reach 1.5 billion by 2050. The estimated increase in the population of older persons for that timeframe in Australia and New Zealand is 84%.

They’re telling numbers, and as a fund, it makes clear that age inclusion and wellbeing should sit alongside financial preparedness as a focus. To mark International Day of Older Persons (October 1), we spoke to UniSuper Private Client Adviser, Kiran Bhullar, and Dr Nancy Pachana, clinical geropsychologist at the University of Queensland (UQ).

Age inclusion

Nancy is a globally recognised expert in geriatric mental health, publishing over 350 peer-reviewed articles, books and chapters among a host of other achievements.

Her research and expertise areas are broad: anxiety in later life, psychological interventions for those with Parkinson’s Disease, nursing home interventions, use of assistance animals in later life, older adults and environmental sustainability, strategies for healthy ageing, driving safety and dementia, teaching and learning in psychogeriatrics and mental health policy and ageing.

Nancy’s seen a lack of purpose and exclusion in older people through her work and research, resulting in poor mental health at a time they should be reaping the rewards of a lifetime of hard work. It can be common.

Inclusion sits at the heart of ageing and retiring well. Rethinking both conscious and subconscious ageist language, Nancy argues, is at the heart of this—and instead focusing on the contributions older people can still make.

She explains why language matters: “I think that ageism is one of the less talked about ‘isms’. People think it’s okay to suggest to people that they’re past their use-by date, or you start hearing these things: ‘do you really want to do that, are you too old for that?’

“It really hurts people when they hear that, but after a while, with everybody saying that, you start to believe it yourself and the research has shown that actually is life limiting. Those people who internalise those beliefs live on average seven and a half years less.

“Why is that? Because they stop doing everything. They stop taking care of their health, their finances, and that’s wrong.

“To be age-inclusive is to say that all people, no matter what their age, still have a contribution to make—they still have a goal they want to achieve.”

Part of this too, Nancy adds, is not making age-based assumptions about a person like their professional skillset, retirement goals and timeline, hobbies or family.

Retiring with purpose

UniSuper Private Client Adviser Kiran Bhullar often works closely with older people, helping them get set for a great retirement. Sitting in our award-winning Advice team*, Kiran is an aged care specialist adviser—meaning she’s well versed in the challenges older people face.

While going about planning for retirement financially, it’s also important to ensure you’ll enter retirement with purpose and direction, however that may look. Think travel, exercise, time with family, volunteering, learning, and any other hobbies you have or may be eager to explore.

Kiran often hears of people lacking purpose and therefore a sense of exclusion in retirement, despite a drive to be active as strong as ever. She’s come to understand just how important social connection is for older people in maintaining purpose, and feels dutybound to help them do that.   

“We see a lot of members come and plan for their retirement and it’s not uncommon to see them again, one or two years into retirement, and we ask ‘how’s it going, how are you feeling?’” she says. 

“It’s about how connected they are and what’s filling in their time. Social connection is a huge part of this. Their health and wellbeing is directly related to what they’re doing during that time, and some of them are really not happy. 

“Older people want to be useful, and sometimes they’re not able to fill in their days with a sense of purpose and what they want to do. That drive is still there, one way or another, in a lot of people … it is really for their own sense of purpose and feeling good about themselves, and connection.

“You do feel responsible about this. While you can take their financial worries away, it’s also about them wanting to know where they can feel connected.”

Nancy and Kiran agree that it’s important to consider what one’s purpose will be before retiring. Kiran is a strong believer in affirming purpose through conversation, something she practices in her advice appointments. 

Research to enhance the ageing experience

Nancy is among a group of academics, led by UQ, with whom we’re working closely to investigate a range of topics around retirement. The goal is to present our findings and deliver better retirement outcomes for members, complimenting financial outcomes through research-based thought leadership. 

Both Kiran and Nancy agree that super funds like us have a key role to play in helping older people stay included—and that research, data and personalisation are crucial. 

“I do feel that super funds could potentially make a difference (in helping older people stay included) through collecting data about what their preferences are,” Kiran says. 

“Super funds do have a lot of the data. It would be nice to hold more data to understand how ageing is impacting our members—what sort of cognitive, psychological, and social preferences and issues they may have. 

“Super funds collect data for its members—for example, if any seminars are held, do they have a preferred seating arrangement, or audiovisual messages? There needs to be more feeling of community… ‘my fund knows what my preferences are’.”

Nancy, who herself is nearing retirement, argues that it’s important for super funds to use their voice and authority to draw attention to the human side of ageing and retirement: “I think we’re lucky enough in Australia to have an excellent superannuation scheme.

“It’s a little complex, so the super funds play a role in educating people and making things accessible to people, but also reminding people that they’re three-dimensional human beings, not just defined by their work.

“Super funds have that responsibility to give well considered advice, and if you’re going to give well considered advice outside of the financial realm, research and hearing the voices of members is really super important.”

We’re looking to progressively begin rolling our research findings out soon, alongside a range of other new initiatives in the retirement space. 

*Remember, awards and ratings are only one factor to take into account when choosing a financial product.

^{^} UniSuper Advice is operated by UniSuper Management Pty Ltd ABN 91 006 961 799 (USM), which is licensed to provide financial product advice. USM is also the administrator of the fund UniSuper ABN 91 385 943 850 (UniSuper). UniSuper Limited ABN 54 006 027 121 is the trustee of UniSuper.