Sheng-Hung Lee Presents Longevity Planning Blocks for FPA 2023 Annual Conference
by Adam Felts
Sheng-Hung Lee, a doctoral candidate in service design and engineering at MIT who is conducting his PhD research with the AgeLab, presented in a breakout session at the Financial Planning Association 2023 Annual Conference on a tool he helped develop to aid financial advisors to have deeper conversations with their clients.
Longer lifespans demand new kinds of planning to ensure quality of life in older age. Financial advisors can play an important role in educating clients about the challenges and opportunities they might encounter in later life. But some advisors may not know how to initiate broader conversations about planning for longevity.
Mr. Lee and AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin propose the use of “Longevity Planning Blocks” to help people project their future selves more tangibly. The twelve blocks are intended to be used in meetings between financial advisors and clients to spark conversations about imagining and planning for the future.
Scholars suggest that the use of artifacts may focus people’s attention and provoke learning, feelings, and discussions that people may not achieve with typical formal retirement conversations and checklists alone.
In the next step of research with Longevity Planning Blocks, Mr. Lee, Dr. Coughlin, and the AgeLab’s PLAN team are conducting an experimental Design for Longevity (D4L) service experience aiming to shift people’s perceptions from financial planning to longevity planning.
The partial presentation slides can be downloaded here.
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