Sneha Rege highlights overlooked risks in retirement strategies, emphasising the importance of safeguards against cognitive deterioration and financial exploitation among older adults.
Sneha Rege’s reflection on retirement planning starts with a familiar set of risks: inflation, longevity and market shocks. But her deeper argument is that many savers overlook a fourth danger entirely, one that lies not in the market but in the mind. After years of building spreadsheets and stress-testing withdrawal rates, Rege says she eventually realised that her plans assumed she would remain the same person decades later. That, she argues, is the weakest assumption of all.
Research on older adults gives her concern a hard edge. A study in the journal article “Old Age and the Decline in Financial Literacy” found that financial literacy tends to fall steadily after age 60, while confidence in financial judgement does not fall in step. A separate paper indexed on PubMed and related work on the subject point to a similar pattern: knowledge and judgement can deteriorate gradually even as people remain convinced they are thinking clearly. That gap between ability and self-belief is central to Rege’s warning.
The problem is not limited to abstract theory. Studies of older adults have found that missed payments and unusual transactions may appear before a formal diagnosis of cognitive impairment, sometimes years earlier. In India, elder financial abuse can also come from within the family circle, according to legal commentary and medical research cited in the material Rege discusses, with relatives, caregivers and adult children among the people most often implicated. The risks range from misuse of power of attorney and property disputes to bank fraud, UPI scams and other forms of financial exploitation.
Rege’s wider point is that conventional retirement tools solve only part of the problem. Wills, nominations and cleaner portfolios matter, but they mainly address death or administrative simplicity, not a gradual erosion in decision-making capacity while a person is still alive. Once that decline begins, the person most affected is often the least able to recognise it. That makes the handover of financial control far harder than many families expect.
There is also a social reality behind the warning. Reporting cited by The New Indian Express on a HelpAge India survey suggests many older Indians remain financially insecure and still carry heavy household responsibilities, while a study in Chennai found elder mistreatment in the community was not rare and that financial abuse was among the common forms. Rege uses that backdrop to argue that retirement planning must go beyond money accumulation. It must also include safeguards, trusted structures and honest conversations about what happens when the planner may no longer be the best person to manage the plan.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
