Retirement is one of the major financial considerations of your lifetime. Many decisions you make with regard to the path your career takes, the form your financial planning takes and other key life milestones relate back to retirement – the culmination of your efforts, and the point at which you’ll need to be more-than-covered on your own financial steam.

The importance of retirement also translates to the importance of retirement finance. In a country where financial literacy is falling, and threats to financial stability simultaneously rising, it is crucial that people approaching retirement age have equitable access to the products and services they may need to not just survive, but thrive.

The continued advancement of technology has had innumerable impacts for financial services in general, and especially so for retirement finances. But how exactly is tech transforming retirement finance, and what does this mean for those reaching retirement age?

Personalised Analyses

As financial technology, or ‘fintech’ solutions get smarter and smarter, so too do retirement finance products and services that start to utilise them. One of the key ways in which this advancement impacts retirement finance is through the deployment of machine-learning algorithms, which can be used to personalise financial products to individual consumers. A good example lies in equity release.

People over the age of 55 can access equity release, sometimes referred to as a lifetime mortgage. The purpose of this service is to allow people advance access to the equity they already have in their home; the balance is repaid upon the sale of said home, and no repayments barring potential interest are required.

These can be highly useful for retirees to re-invest in their home, adding disability aids or extensions to enable more comfortable living; they are also necessarily unique from person to person, home to home and situation to situation. Algorithm-powered personalisation pathways can hasten this process, without requiring man-hours and subsequent delays.

Automation and Efficiency

This same innovation in machine-learning and ‘AI’ technology can be used to great effect on the administrative side of the equation. Just as data and products can be personalised to applicants, so too can processing be accelerated by using automated systems. These automated systems can perform complex data entry and compile relevant documentation without human intervention, saving considerable time and effort – and getting products to applicants quicker in the process.

Accessible Platforms

Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, technology can serve to improve access to financial products for older people. Tech literacy naturally drops off in older populations, which can make onboarding new customers for later-life products difficult. By integrating voice assistant systems, providing smart forms to sign, and freeing up human contacts for conventional methods of communication, new fintech can reach more people.