A new study of 3,000 American adults age 55 and older explores a range of topics, including what people most want to be remembered for (memories shared with loved ones, said more than two-thirds of the respondents) and the benefits of having your affairs in order. The study, conducted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in partnership with Age Wave, also found a disconnect between intention and action: nine out of 10 adults are open to discussing end-of-life preferences with friends and family, but only 18% have the three recommended essentials in place: a will, health care directive, and durable power of attorney.

This January 2019 report, by GCOA Advisory Council member Nicholas Eberstadt, examines China’s demographic profile over the next 20 years. According to Eberstadt’s study, China is set to experience an extraordinarily rapid surge of population aging, with especially explosive population growth for those 65 and older, even as its working-age population, conventionally defined as 15-64, progressively shrinks. These changes – and how China adapts to them – will have enormous implications for its economy and society.

On July 9-10, 2019, the Government of Finland and the Global Coalition on Aging convened the first-ever Silver Economy Forum for government and business leaders. Following the success of the Helsinki Silver Economy Forum, GCOA was invited to bring the issues highlighted in the Silver Economy Forum to the annual World Summit on the Information Society 2020, followed by other global SEF convening in New York and China.

In 2019, the Global Coalition on Aging teamed with the Government of Finland to present the first-ever global conference of government and business leaders focused solely on the business of aging. Featuring CEOs of global companies, government leaders, NGOs and global institutions, the inaugural Silver Economy Forum:

• Clarified and elevated the understanding of the opportunities of the $15 trillion silver economy;
• Stimulated new thinking on the impact of finance, technology, elder caregiving, and medicine on healthy and active aging;
• Helped map business strategies to create value for established companies and entrepreneurial ventures through the prism of the aging lens;
• Highlighted policies and innovative solutions that enable successful aging; and
• Spotlighted how government and business are working together to leverage the aging mega-trend.

These two days of thought-provoking panels and speeches were complemented by an expo area for showcasing current and future innovations. In October 2019, GCOA released the report Five Powerful Ideas for Capturing the Value of the Silver Economy, based on the expert insights and recommended actions from the Forum.

Following the success of the Helsinki Silver Economy Forum, GCOA was invited to bring the issues highlighted in the Silver Economy Forum to the annual World Summit on the Information Society 2020. GCOA created and implemented the event’s first-ever track on the role of Information Communication Technologies in our 21st Century Aging Societies. This year the Forum is a virtual event that began on June 22nd, 2020 with an opening session hosted by GCOA, and will run through September 10, 2020.

Visit the Silver Economy Forum website to learn more about Helsinki, WSIS, and other Silver Economy Forum events.

In November 2018, GCOA and Nutricia released a report highlighting the need for a focus on nutrition as a core element of healthy and active aging. Nutrition is an increasingly important solution for meeting the WHO’s goal of functional ability, and the report calls on stakeholders to take action to maximize the potential of good nutrition in the Decade of Healthy Ageing.

This infographic briefly outlines the benefits of relationship-based home care to individuals and their families, to the care ecosystem, and to society and proposes a set of policy actions to support the integration of this innovative form of care into the United Kingdom’s care system.

This infographic briefly outlines the benefits of relationship-based home care to individuals and their families, to the care ecosystem, and to society and proposes a set of policy actions to increase the visibility and availability of this innovative form of care in the Australian aged care system.

In November 2018, GCOA partnered with the Tokyo-based Health and Global Policy Institute to convene an expert meeting on “The Impact of Innovation Across Technology, Health, Care and Urban Design for Super-Ageing Societies.” The meeting brought together 30-40 top Japanese and global experts across academia, government, NGOs, and the private sector to exchange views and gain insights that would be helpful to inform future discussions.

Key public policy areas of focus included encouraging healthier lifestyle choices, adopting smoking cessation programs, accessing innovative medicines to address unmet medical needs, utilizing preventive adult vaccines to immunize against diseases that disproportionately affect the aging, expanding models of care to enable older adults to remain at home as they age, adopting remote care technology to facilitate more coordinated and more efficient care, and promoting a more active and mobile 21st century society with age-friendly urban design. 

In April 2019, the two organizations jointly released a report in English and in Japanese offering recommendations on these critical topics to policymakers and other leaders across global society.

This new report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies shows that American workers are more secure in their retirement preparations now than before the Great Recession. However, findings in the report underscore the ongoing need to further improve retirement security. For example, the study finds that household savings in all retirement accounts have dramatically increased since their pre-recession levels but that many are still “guessing” their retirement savings needs. Further, the percentage of employers that offer retirement plans has remained unchanged from 2007.

The Guiding Principles for the Multi-Generational Workplace help companies create workplaces that embrace and support workers of all ages – key to success in a rapidly aging world. Companies that endorse these seven principles not only will be seen as forward-thinking and ahead of the game, they also will be positioned to realize tangible gains in productivity, competitiveness, and worker satisfaction.

Global companies of the future will likely look very different from those of today for two reasons. First, as a consequence of 20th-century gains in longevity, advances in healthy aging, and increasingly flexible working environments, many more people will be willing and able to work into their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Second, declining birth rates will lead to a dramatic shiftin the proportion of “old” to “young” in societies around the world. The retention, recruitment, and full participation of older workers may well become a necessity for companies accustomed to attracting most new hires in their 20s and 30s and focusing development on the first part of an employee’s career.

In this new study, part of the 18th Annual Retirement Survey, Aegon’s Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (TCRS) interviewed more than 1,800 for-profit employers to gain insights about how they are helping their employees prepare for retirement. The study compares the employer survey findings with TCRS’ survey of workers. Today, many workers want and need to extend their working lives to financially prepare for longer retirements – and they need more support from their employers. The findings in this survey illustrate ways that employers are out of sync with workers in regard to perceptions and business practices related to older workers.

In August 2018, GCOA led a workshop on Remote Care Innovation for Elder Caregiving at the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) 14th Global Conference on Ageing conference in Toronto, Canada. The workshop explored cutting edge innovations in remote care and how these new technologies are creating efficiencies in care and improving quality of life for older adults. Panelists included John Beard, Director, Ageing and Life Course Department, World Health Organization; Dave Ryan, GM, Health Sector, Internet of Things Group, Intel; Jisella Dolan, Chief Advocacy Officer, Home Instead Senior Care; and Shurjeel Choudhri, Senior Vice President and Head, Medical and Scientific Affairs, Bayer.

The IFA Conference was titled “Towards a Decade of Healthy Ageing – From Evidence to Action,” in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Report on Ageing and Health and the subsequent goals of the WHO Global Strategy and Action Plan (2016). The conference revolved around four key themes related to the field of ageing and featured prominent experts presenting and discussing critical issues.

In addition to the session on Remote Care, GCOA also hosted a Farewell Dinner for Dr. Beard.

On July 27, 2018, GCOA and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) released a new Dementia Innovation Readiness report for 2018, along with an update to the 2017 Index. The new report and the update officially launched at the ADI conference in Chicago.

In July 2018, GCOA launched the 2018 Dementia Innovation Readiness Index and G7 Update at Alzheimer’s Disease International’s 33rd Conference in Chicago. GCOA and ADI first published the Dementia Innovation Readiness Index in April 2017. The Index was the first-ever effort to analyze the readiness of different countries to integrate innovative dementia solutions into their healthcare systems and policy frameworks. Since the Index’s publication, several countries that were analyzed have taken steps forward to support innovation readiness in dementia, yet others have failed to make any measurable progress.

ADI CEO Paola Barbarino joined GCOA CEO Mike Hodin and special guests to report on progress achieved in the past year in G7 countries and present Index scores and findings for Argentina, Brazil, China, India, and Saudi Arabia.

The Index reports on 10 factors that support or enable dementia innovation readiness:

1. Strategy and commitment
2. Government funding
3. Education and workforce
4. Early detection and diagnosis
5. Regulatory environment
6. Access to care
7. Prevention and risk reduction
8. Business environment
9. Care standards
10. Built environment

This first-of-its-kind report assesses the retirement outlook of self-employed people around the world. Based on a survey of 1,600 people across 15 countries, this new report finds that the self-employed have a flexible vision of retirement and face unique challenges in terms of retirement planning.

GCOA partnered with the New York Academy of Medicine, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and AARP NY to host a unique symposium on financial wellness and aging, including the prevention of financial fraud and abuse targeting older adults. The January 2018 invitation-only event leveraged New York City’s position as the epicenter of global finance and its celebrated Age-friendly NYC Initiative, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore innovative strategies to adopt a life course approach to financial health within the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. On the occasion of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, GCOA and its partners released a first-of-its-kind financial wellness guide, featuring insights and action items from the January symposium.

GCOA partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to co-create Transformation Maps on the topic of aging. WEF’s new Transformation Maps help users to explore and make sense of the complex and interlinked forces that are transforming economies, industries, and global issues. The Transformation Maps allows users to visualize and understand more than 120 topics and the connections and inter-dependencies between them, helping in turn to support more informed decision-making by leaders.

In June 2018, GCOA launched a groundbreaking report demonstrating how relationship-based home care can enable ongoing delivery of high-quality, person-centered, and outcomes-based care to older adults while bending the healthcare cost curves exploding across Europe.

This  report outlines the benefits of relationship-based home care to individuals and their families, to the care ecosystem, and to societies and proposes a set of policy actions to support the integration of this innovative form of care into European health and care systems.

The seventh annual Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey draws on findings from workers and retirees from 15 countries spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. The 2018 report finds that the “social contract” for retirement is crumbling, and almost half of today’s workers and retirees believe that future generations of retirees will be worse off. The Retirement Readiness Survey is a collaboration among Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement (ACLR) and nonprofits Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies® (TCRS) and Instituto de Longevidade Mongeral Aegon.