The Fintech Community of Israel
Call to Action – Fintech for Aging & Longevity
Making a Difference for Aging and Older Adults
The Fintech Community of Israel is calling its business and community partners and international collaborators to participate in the Fintech for Aging & Longevity working group. The mission of the group is to improve the financial wellbeing of aging and older adults through financial technologies. Deadline: February 15th, 2021.
With the rapid global demographic trend of aging and the growing need for aging-related technologies, The Fintech Community of Israel recognizes the role of financial innovation to support the economic growth and quality of life of aging adults. Planning for retirement during the last stage of the life course usually starts at the age of 50, and data shows this demographic accounts for more 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟖𝟑% 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 (AARP).
While the aging process is more dynamic than ever, with extended disability-free stages including opportunities in the labor market, this demographic creates new opportunities for every generation. The aging process is also associated with financial risks such as extended periods of chronic conditions and long-term care and a higher economic burden on individuals and their family caregivers. In addition, the marginalization of public healthcare and pensions provided by the state has resulted in increased medical costs, unmanageable late-life debt, and inadequate savings. All of these factors are creating a need for financial technologies to play a central role by offering innovative solutions to plan, monitor and finance a longer life, while protecting and supporting aging adults and their family caregivers.
In light of these changes, financial institutions now recognize the value of fintechs across all ages to achieve sustainable engagement with their aging customers. Using a consumer-centric approach and leveraging Open Banking and APIs, it is also becoming easier for financial institutions to build partnerships with fintechs to increase financial inclusion and improve financial health across every age group.
By leveraging on the success of Israeli fintech in the last decades, and creating a local and international network of collaborators from the fintech community, this call addresses three types of stakeholders from our community:
- Financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, asset management firms and other financial services) that are interested in protecting and serving aging and older adults through fintech solutions.
- Existing fintech entrepreneurs who would like to expand their offerings to aging and older adults.
- VCs, accelerators and incubators that are interested in allocating resources for the development of aging-related financial technologies into viable commercial solutions.
An initial mapping of aging-related fintech offerings in Israel, Europe and the US, can be divided into the following areas:
- Protection – Fighting scams and fraud against older adults.
- Monitoring and managing finances – The optimization of healthcare costs, social security rights, assisting in bill payments, and assisting caregivers with the monitoring of their parents’ finances.
- Longevity and end-of-life planning – Democratizing retirement planning for low and middle-income groups, digital estate planning and digital vaults.
- Longevity financing – Leveraging existing assets and skills to finance a longer life, including digital reverse mortgages for “aging in place”, home-sharing, and the utilisation of skills to generate more income in retirement.
Other fintech offerings might include life-long learning, digital literacy, accessibility and more.
We are now calling our community partners and international collaborators to submit their request to join the working group’s first session that will take place during the last week of February (more details will be provided soon). This session will include information on the demographic trend of aging, the changing patterns of retirement, current fintech offerings, and opportunities and barriers in fintech for aging. The deadline for requests to participate in the working group is February 15th, 2021.
Please submit your suggestions and entries in the form below.
For further inquiries, please contact Dr. Ira Sobel, Head of the Fintech for Aging and Longevity initiative at [email protected].
Kind regards,
Shmuel Ben-Tovim Tamar Barnoy Gotlin
Chairman Board Member