Adam Felts Discusses Longevity Preparedness Index at Winchester Council on Aging

AgeLab Research Associate Adam Felts presented on the results of the Longevity Preparedness Index, a new tool that evaluates people’s readiness to thrive in later life, at the Jenks Center Symposium in Winchester, Massachusetts. The Jenks Center, which is Winchester’s local Council on Aging, holds an annual community event that features presentations from academics and professionals in the Boston area who focus on aging-related topics.

Felts began his presentation by describing the AgeLab’s goal to shift the discourse on retirement planning, which historically has characterized retirement as a relatively brief period of life for which money is the sole indicator of preparedness. With the average life expectancy close to 80 years old, people now need to plan for a multi-decade retirement, with a host of transitions and challenges.

The Longevity Preparedness Index provides a framework for understanding preparedness for later life in comprehensive terms. At its base, the LPI is a questionnaire that individuals can take to receive a score on their level of preparedness for life in older age.

Through decades of research, an extensive literature review, and interviews with experts, the AgeLab identified eight domains—and corresponding questions—that are connected with wellbeing in later life: home, community, daily activities, life transitions, care, health, finance, and social connection. The LPI provides both an overall score and scores for the eight domains to its users.

In July 2025, the AgeLab fielded the LPI to a representative sample of adults in the United States. The overall average score for the first U.S. assessment of longevity preparedness was a 60, suggesting significant room for national improvement. Care was the lowest scoring domain nationally, and Community was the highest scoring domain.

Several demographic characteristics influenced LPI scores: having caregiving experience was associated with higher scores, especially in the care domain, suggesting that exposure to a caregiving role has an inoculating effect on a person’s approach to longevity.

Income and education were markedly associated with higher scores, tracking with long-established research on social inequality; however, these factors were not associated with higher scores in the care and home domains, suggesting that some areas of preparedness are not solved by material resources alone.

Having a financial advisor, especially one who engages holistically on longevity, was also associated with better LPI scores, suggesting the value of good advice in helping people prepare for later life.

The LPI has three functions: first, by exposing people to the idea of holistic preparedness, it is an educational tool. Second, by providing a score of preparedness, both for individuals and communities, it functions as a tool for measurement and comparison, both between groups and over time. Finally, the LPI is intended to be a galvanizer, putting preparedness on the agenda and motivating individuals and communities to improve their scores.