Last year this column ran a series of articles which focused on various age groups and the types of financial decisions that influenced their overall wealth. I found it interesting that many of those ‘markers’ of success were not related to earning capacity, but due to learned behaviours. In December’s column I considered the 65 plus age group and I thought my article series had come to a natural conclusion. However, a recent client meeting reminded me that there is a further age group worthy of specific mention – the 80+ group. It is not too many years ago that this group would only have been mentioned as a foot note. Today this group makes up 12% of the population over 65 and statisticians tell us that this number is likely to double over the next 30 years 1 . One of the realities of this age group is that it is generally a period when we can expect to experience some cognitive decline. Overseas studies 2,3 have shown that at age 80 around 15% of the population will ...