It has long been reported that New Zealanders have high life expectancy. We know the leading causes of health loss, but we do not know how severely COVID-19 will affect the the health of New Zealanders.

A good view of mortality data (note: written about 36 hours ago, as things are changing fast) is available in this Brookings Institute data. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/03/23/a-mortality-perspective-on-covid-19-time-location-and-age/ 

Age and underlying health conditions are major factors in the case fatality rate, which also makes the underlying health of New Zealanders a subject of great interest right now.

Below are images from the Health and Independence 2017 report that illustrates causes of health loss and the number of years New Zealanders are living in poor health. 

As we are facing an aging population this article from Wealth Management discusses the issues that may arise if clients start to outlive their financial assets. Two questions not asked are really interesting here. The first is instead of making do with averages - such as the risk that an average client will live into their eighties or nineties quoted in the article, why not get a better idea of this number? The next question not asked, was related to housing. The Economist recently estimated that 60% of Britons who own at home at 50 will not move house before they die... preferring to occupy a three-bedroom house often for a prolonged period when just one person will live in it. That asset could be realised, so why the ready acceptance of the concept 'financial asset'? Aren't they all financial, in the end?