Adults over 50 represent one of the most powerful economic forces of our time, driving more than 50% of U.S. consumer spending and projected to command $65 trillion in global spending by 2030.DisobeyArt | Adobe StockAdults over 50 represent one of the most powerful economic forces of our time, driving more than 50% of U.S. consumer spending and projected to command $65 trillion in global spending by 2030. By 2053, a third of Europe, a quarter of America, and nearly two billion people globally will be over 65. “The numbers are clear,” says Peter Kaldes, Esq., President and CEO of Next50. “The population is aging, and the market hasn’t caught up to meet the opportunity. While the largest demographic shift humankind has ever seen is rearranging every economy on earth, capital is asleep. For us, success means waking it up.” A private, $300 million foundation whose mission is to promote independence and dignity for an aging population, Next50 sought to address this gap by engaging the Sorenson Impact Institute to produce a public-facing “Aging Investing Roadmap.” The roadmap is a toolkit to help direct capital toward scalable solutions. From defining an impact thesis to developing an investment process, the roadmap outlines five concise steps for integrating aging considerations into long-term investment strategies. “We already believed aging was one of the biggest investment opportunities hiding in plain sight,” Kaldes says. “What we didn’t have was a way to explain this megatrend to other investors and have them act on it. That’s where the Sorenson Impact Institute came in. We asked them to take our innovative framework and translate it into a roadmap, which turned into something concrete, with steps an investor or another foundation could actually follow.” Transforming Demographics, Transforming Markets Dr. Nzinga Broussard, Senior Director of Impact Measurement at the Sorenson Impact Institute, leads the Next50 project. “Breakthroughs in medicine, technology, and preventive care have enabled people to live longer, healthier lives,” Broussard says. “This demographic transformation is reshaping markets. Longer lives will reshape how communities are designed, how workforces evolve, how financial systems operate, and how care and support services are delivered.”MORE FOR YOUAs the population ages, evolving systems can transform investments in an aging population from meeting necessities to new financial opportunities focused on improving quality of life across sectors. The roadmap introduces Next50’s aging investing framework and provides a practical approach for integrating aging considerations into almost any investment, Kaldes says. The hope is that turning Next50’s framework into a public roadmap will enable more allocators to consider how the aging population influences their capital deployment, including screening companies based on age-friendly business practices, investing in companies that offer services that benefit older adults, and supporting solutions that intentionally address challenges faced by older adults. “When people hear ‘aging investments,’ they usually think it’s all about healthcare,” he says. “We follow longstanding research on what we need to age well. Investing in healthcare is important, but equally so is economic security, the built environment, and social inclusion.”Older adults aren’t just elderly patients; they’re workers, consumers, caregivers, and entrepreneurs. Serving them well means rethinking how society is built and funded, from homes to healthcare to retirement products. For investors, aging isn’t a niche. It’s a broad, cross-sector opportunity that spans both public and private markets, and one that can align financial returns with meaningful social impact.The roadmap introduces Next50’s aging investing framework and provides a practical approach for integrating aging considerations into almost any investment, Kaldes says.Sorenson Impact InstituteDeveloping the RoadmapTo create the roadmap, the team drew from the experiences and insights of market participants already active in the aging space, including entrepreneurs, foundations, fund managers, and investment advisors.“We started the engagement by meeting with several other foundations and impact investors focused on aging,” Broussard says. “It was an opportunity to learn from their experiences in aging investing and to incorporate these learnings in the roadmap.” “One group we interviewed was 1843 Capital, a venture capital fund that seeks above-market-rate returns and invests in technology and tech-enabled innovation, such as investment in the autonomous vehicle industry,” she says. “Similarly, Next50’s investment strategy includes not only investments that directly aim to improve outcomes of older adults, but investments in companies that have age-friendly best practices. For example, Next50 invests in a company that offers phased retirement to help employees transition gradually into full retirement.”Translating opportunities and experience into best practices and a practical framework was the lens the Sorenson team brought to the project, Kaldes says. “They brought the reputation, experience, and discipline to turn our framework into a tool people can pick up and use. We also wanted to work with a credible partner like Sorenson to increase the likelihood that the framework will become something the whole field uses.”What’s Next in Aging Investing Broussard says she was inspired to see the opportunities for innovation presented by this shifting market. “This is not simply a social challenge; it represents market inefficiencies and opportunities for innovation,” she says. “Impact investors are uniquely positioned to support companies that bolster innovations and services that support healthy aging, boost social and economic participation, and enhance quality of life. Doing so requires a paradigm shift from viewing aging as a cost to be managed toward recognizing it as an opportunity to innovate and invest in new approaches to learning, earning, living, and connecting.”The roadmap invites key questions for consideration to support investment decision-making and offers examples of organizations, investors, and funds transforming how capital flows into aging communities by funding projects such as affordable housing, increased access to healthy foods, improved financial security, and more community-oriented models of long-term care.Kaldes sees the roadmap as the first step toward a future in which aging investment moves into the mainstream, driving both social innovation and financial returns for investors. “In five years, I’d love for other investors to be using this roadmap and putting real money behind it,” he says. “In 10 years, I want aging to be a category in which investors are seeing social and financial returns. And in 20 years, the goal I care about most, aging investment, will be as ordinary and as ubiquitous as climate investing is today. Not a niche. Just a normal, expected part of how serious capital gets allocated to meet the demographic reality.”Explore the Aging Investing Roadmap from Next50 and the Sorenson Impact Institute. Learn more about the Institute’s Impact Measurement and Management expertise.
