Financial systems still rely on outdated concepts of linear careers, stable households, and a one-time transition into retirement, even as life expectancy continues to rise. This is the primary conclusion from the "The Future of Personal Finance" report, prepared by UniCredit in collaboration with the UK-based National Innovation Centre on Ageing (NICA), the bank announced.

The report's authors point out that longevity should no longer be viewed as a distant demographic issue, but as a challenge that requires solutions right now. A longer life brings more frequent income interruptions, health difficulties, and caregiving responsibilities. Costs are rising. Important financial decisions are becoming more frequent and more closely interconnected. Businesses can build products tailored to multiple life transitions, shared decision-making, early prevention, and variable incomes. According to the report, doing so will win customer trust and build lasting relationships with them.

The document notes that this topic is particularly timely, as global average life expectancy is expected to reach 73.5 years by 2025. At the same time, only 34 percent of adults in OECD countries meet minimum financial literacy levels. According to the report, 16.2 percent of the European Union population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This indicates that the benefits of a longer life are not being distributed equally to everyone.

The report outlines four key shifts that businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

The first relates to the move away from traditional life stages toward a more flexible lifestyle. Life is becoming increasingly unpredictable, yet many financial decisions continue to assume a sequence of education, work, homeownership, and retirement. The consequences are already evident. 40 percent of people worldwide report financial instability following an unplanned career break—due to illness, a career break, unexpected retirement, or other life changes.

The report states that for many people, this mismatch can turn ordinary changes—such as retraining, caring for a loved one, returning to work, or phased retirement—into a financial ordeal. Financial resilience increasingly depends on the ability to maintain savings and financial protection while simultaneously retaining freedom of choice amid changing circumstances. For banks, insurers, employers, and consumer goods companies, this opens an opportunity to create lending, savings, insurance, and benefit models that are flexible in response to changes in employment, income, and family environments.

The second shift affects personal finance management, which is increasingly becoming a shared responsibility between generations and households. In the European Union, 45 percent of the population provides unpaid care for loved ones, and one in ten people holds more than one caregiving role. The report indicates that 25 percent of European couples with children live in so-called blended families. These figures show that caregiving, housing costs, and daily financial obligations are increasingly shared among generations, partners, and households, rather than resting on a single individual.

While informal arrangements provide real support, they often leave the responsibility invisible. Caregivers—of whom women represent a disproportionately large share—often pay a price for this. They receive lower incomes, smaller pension contributions, and weaker financial security in later life. According to the report, this creates a need for secure delegated management, joint financial planning, multi-party access permissions, and products that recognize the involvement of multiple individuals without compromising privacy and control. Employers must also view caregiving for loved ones as a predictable financial challenge for their employees, rather than an exception, the document states.

The report emphasizes that no single institution can solve these problems alone—coordination is required between banks, insurers, employers, health organizations, government institutions, and communities.

The third shift is related to turning foresight into a financial skill. As life lengthens, early risk recognition becomes increasingly valuable, the report's authors note. However, 1.3 billion older people worldwide remain outside the formal financial system, with more than half of them concentrated in just eight countries.

Portable technologies, financial dashboards, and predictive tools can help people recognize problems earlier, but more data does not automatically mean greater clarity, the report points out. True value comes from timely and understandable information that allows people to make their own decisions and act before difficulties escalate into a crisis. For businesses, this is an opportunity to offer timely support with the client's consent, thereby preventing the escalation of potential problems. The report warns that to earn trust, this support must be transparent, fair, and accessible to all; tools created only for those with sufficient means, time, and financial literacy risk deepening existing inequalities.

The fourth shift involves turning flexibility into a new form of security. Financial stability is increasingly built from several different income sources rather than depending on a single permanent job. In 2025, 72 percent of surveyed workers in the US rely on at least one additional source of income, and 59 percent of surveyed employees worldwide state they would prefer greater control over their working hours over higher pay. As a result, careers with multiple roles, the so-called gig economy, various social benefits, compensation programs, and phased retirement are blurring the traditional lines between earning, saving, and spending accumulated funds.

According to the report, irregular income should not automatically mean more difficult access to credit, protection, or long-term wealth building. For businesses, this creates a need for payment systems capable of consolidating multiple income sources, reducing volatility, and allocating funds between expenses, savings, insurance, and taxes. Employers can also build a competitive advantage through portable forms of protection, retraining support, phased retirement, and benefits that remain relevant throughout various career stages, the report notes.

"Healthy longevity is measured not only by lifespan, but also by its quality and opportunities. This research shows why personal finance must function as vital infrastructure that helps people maintain freedom of choice while they learn, work, care, recover, and reinvent themselves throughout a longer life. The successful organizations will be those that make complexity easier to manage without stripping away human autonomy," commented Nick Palmerini, Director of the National Innovation Centre on Ageing (NICA).

"A longer life is not just an individual challenge—it changes how financial decisions are made within families and between generations. Our approach at UniCredit is to anticipate customer needs rather than reacting to them after the fact, supporting them through all stages of their financial lives to help them build greater security, confidence, and more opportunities," said Richard Burton, Head of Client Solutions at the bank.

According to the report's conclusions, the future of personal finance is not about accumulating more wealth, but about the ability of people to manage a longer and more complex life with confidence, resilience, and freedom of choice. For organizations, this means developing solutions built on flexibility, predictability, interdependence, and adaptability, and working collaboratively across the sectors of finance, employment, insurance, healthcare, technology, and public services.