Large life expectancy gap threatens couples’ retirement plans.

Married couples are expected to stick together through thick and thin. But retirement can pose a unique challenge even to the sweetest of unions.

According to Manulife Asset Management’s Aging Asia Research Series, most married couples in Singapore do not factor in the fact that one partner may outlive the other when planning for their retirement.

This oversight could spell trouble for wives who will outlive their husbands, as women generally live longer than men.

In Singapore, for instance, majority of couples expect to live in retirement for 24.3 years. But after the death of a husband, widowed wives generally spend another 11 years in retirement alone.

“Marital age differences and the longer average lifespans of females mean that the sole

survivor of a married couple is generally a widowed wife. ARDM reveals that married couples can expect to spend anywhere from 50-75% of their aggregate retirement duration together, but that the sole survivor – usually the wife – is likely to spend a considerable portion of their retirement alone,” the report noted.