run run shaw retires as tvb chairman at age 104

yesterday, there was a media report that caught my eye(s). it featured mr run run shaw, the co-founder of Television Broadcasts (TVB) who will retire as chairman after more than 40 years at Hong Kong's largest television company. according to consultant media partners asia, TVB accounted for more than 80 per cent of Hong Kong's free-to-air television market by advertising sales in 2009.

mr shaw will step down officially on Dec 31, 2011 but will be appointed chairman emeritus of TVB after he retires. he will be replaced by executive deputy chairman norman leung, who will become chairman on Jan 1, 2012.

mr shaw, who set up Hong Kong's biggest free-to-air television operator in 1965, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

my comments:

for all skeptics who find it hard to believe that any person can live well beyond today's life expectancy, mr run run shaw is an excellent example who is not only tremendously successful but is now well past his centenarian years at 104 years young.

and the honour of being the oldest person in singapore is probably ms teresa hsu chih, born on jul 07, 1898, living past her 113th birthday but has since passed away very recently on december 07, 2011. perahps one factor in her longevity is the fact that she advocates and practises laughter and i quote:

"I prefer to laugh than to weep. Those people who cry to me, I always tell them it is better to laugh than to use tissue paper, as laughing is free but tissue paper still cost five cent. 'Ha ha ha' cost no cents."

what's my point?

because living to a ripe old age, surpassing today's life expectancy of 80 to 90 years presents challenges to any financial planner and specifically, retirement planning.

often times, i have looked at the retirement plan of both individuals and families (executed by other financial planners) and the following variables and or their assumptions does not sit well with me:

a. assuming too short a period of retirement, with life expectancy to be
either 70, 75 or 80 years.
b. expected rate of inflation assumed to be very low at sub 2%.
c. expected rate of returns to be too high at 2 figures. i saw one retirement
plan with an assumed rate of return to be 15%.

and last but not least, the retirement plan may be too aggressive with the retirement age assumed to be 35 years or 40 years old which brings forth the twin challenges in both the shorter time horizon (from current age till retirement) and the longer number of years in retirement (based on current life expectancy).

therefore, the bottom line is this, which is the importance of not only engaging a competent financial planner but the retirement plan should not have overly benign assumptions, for example, on the rate of inflation and adopting too aggresive a rate of return from investments.