Technical update: Life expectancy (Wanderwell v6)

Technical Update

Life expectancy

We have updated our database with the latest available life expectancy data, based on the ‘Australian Life Tables’ published by the Australian Government Actuary (AGA) on 5 December 2019. These are the same figures used by the Department of Social Security in the assessment of certain income streams, based on when the income stream payments commenced.

In Pathfinder, this affects the relevant number for annuities, as well as account based pensions commenced before 1 January 2015 which use ‘return of capital’ rather than ‘deeming’ for the income test.

Note that while the Australian Bureau of Statistics (another government source) publishes life expectancy data yearly, the AGA’s publications every 5 years contain more relevant data which is used in practice. We will be keeping an eye out for the next AGA Australian Life Tables release around December 2024.

Notes for existing users

Please refresh your results for active cases

If you have any existing cases in progress, please refresh your results by clicking the Start Solve button for any scenarios where you created results on or before the release date of Wednesday 16 November 2022. This will ensure that all your scenarios are consistent. Note that the numbers in your results may change when you re-solve, but it is better to be consistent across scenarios. If you are unsure when your results were created, see How to check when your results were created.

For the updated assumptions, any cases you started before the release date will continue with the previous assumptions. Any cases you create after the release date will have the new assumptions.