When Cynthia Hutchins started her career as a financial planner in the 1980s, the concept of “retirement” was simple and straightforward. Most of her clients envisioned a few years of leisure after their full-time careers ended, with a pension, Social Security and perhaps a bit of savings providing steady support.

For many years, I have been doing research into what it takes to prepare for a successful retirement. Through this work, I have learned that the concept of retirement means different things to different people. The traditional view where you stop working from one day to the next is becoming as outdated as the concept of a job for life, upon which the idea was built.

The New Social Contract: Empowering individuals in a transitioning world, a global survey report published by Aegon in 2019, identifies people’s top four current life priorities as: being healthy and fit (62%), enjoying life (59%), planning for their financial future (49%), and focusing on family (45%). Since the end of last year, the entire world has been upended by COVID-19.

Longevity. Caregiving. Brain health. Diversity. Artificial intelligence. An intergenerational workforce. These are the forces that continue to change how we live and work. What can we expect in the years ahead and what impact will these trends have on individuals, the workplace and global policy? How can we navigate this evolving landscape, and what strategies can we implement to help us reach our goals?

Joseph Sternberg is absolutely right about the adverse effect of Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to tax baby boomers (“How Do You Tax A Baby Boomer?,” Political Economics, Sept. 13). Yet it surprises me how stuck in a 20th-century work-retirement model even the usually perceptive and insightful Mr. Sternberg seems to be.