Longevity, Healthcare and the Geography of a Longer Life 

Residency and citizenship decisions are usually discussed in terms of mobility, tax, investment and security. Health is often treated as a secondary consideration, something to be arranged once the move has been made. 

That ordering is starting to change. As internationally minded families plan over longer horizons, the questions extend well beyond where they can travel or invest. They include where they will receive care in later life, where their children will raise their own families, and how their health and wealth will be managed across borders over several decades. 

Those horizons are lengthening in two directions at once. Global Citizen Solutions’ 2026 Global Retirement Report and Index notes that many people are aiming to step back from full-time work earlier, with research cited in the report finding that Gen Z expects to retire at 54 on average.  

At the same time, people are living longer. As the report points out, someone who stops working at 40 or 45 may need to fund 50 or 60 years of life, with rising healthcare costs compounding over that span. 

“Longevity is becoming part of how families think about where they want to live,” said Patricia Casaburi, Founder and CEO of Global Citizen Solutions. “They want a country where the lifestyle naturally supports a long life: good food, good water and a good medical system. Healthcare is really an important part of that.” 

Longevity, in this sense, is not only a scientific or medical subject. It is also a planning question, and one that sits naturally alongside residency and citizenship. It is one of the themes that will be explored at the Wealth & Migration Summit, hosted by Global Citizen Solutions in Lisbon on 5 and 6 November 2026. 

Access to healthcare depends heavily on legal status. Residency, citizenship and tax residence can each affect which public systems a person can use, how private insurance is priced, and what continuity of care is possible when moving between countries. 

For a family spread across several jurisdictions, these questions rarely have a single answer. A parent may spend most of the year in one country, a child may study in another, and an older relative may need long-term care somewhere else. Each arrangement carries its own rules, costs and practical limitations. 

This is why healthcare belongs at the start of a residency or citizenship conversation, not at the end. The legal route chosen today can shape the options available to a family many years from now. 

For many investors, longevity is not only a personal concern. It is increasingly discussed as an area of investment and innovation in its own right, spanning research, healthtech, preventive care and related services. 

At the Summit, Cintia Mano, Chief Investment Officer at the European Longevity Hub, brings the investor’s perspective. Dr. Nina Patrick, a longevity researcher and entrepreneur, brings the view from science and innovation. 

For internationally minded investors, the two perspectives meet. The same family may be thinking about longevity as a personal priority and as an allocation decision, sometimes in the same jurisdiction. 

Longer lives also change the shape of family wealth. Decisions about residency, citizenship, tax, investment and succession now often affect three generations at once, sometimes living in different countries. 

For many families, the family office is where those decisions come together. Rather than a series of separate choices made by different advisors at different times, the aim is a single plan in which each part supports the others. 

“Everything needs to be sewn together,” said Casaburi. “It should be one big plan, or several smaller plans that talk to each other: tax, residency, citizenship, succession and wealth management.” 

Bringing longevity into the planning process does not mean choosing a jurisdiction for its healthcare alone. It means asking a wider set of questions at the outset, such as: 

• Does the country’s way of life support long-term wellbeing, from healthcare and safety to environment, community and daily routine? 
• Which healthcare systems will each family member be able to access, and on what terms? 
• Does the route lead somewhere: permanent residency, citizenship or the right to keep an existing nationality? 
• Can the people who matter most, whether a spouse, children or parents, be included now or join later? 
• How do these priorities interact with tax residence, investment decisions and succession planning? 
• Is the plan flexible enough to adapt as the family’s circumstances, and the wider landscape, evolve? 

“Retirement abroad is a decision measured in decades, so the later years deserve as much thought as the first. Where a visa leads matters as much as where it starts,” said Laura Madrid, Lead Researcher, Global Intelligence Unit, Global Citizen Solutions. 

The answers will differ for every family. What they share is a longer horizon. A residency or citizenship decision made with longevity in mind is more likely to remain useful across decades, rather than solving only the needs of the next few years. 

In Lisbon, these questions will be part of a wider conversation about how internationally minded families plan for the long term. Longevity, healthcare and wellbeing are among the themes on the agenda, alongside wealth, family and cross-border planning. Speakers include Dr. Nina Patrick, Cintia Mano, and Dr. Joana Costa, Clinic Director at B-life Clinic. 

The Summit brings together investors, advisors, family offices, government officials and industry leaders over two days of main-stage discussions and specialist-led workshops. 

Residency and citizenship planning has always been about the future. As families plan for longer lives, that future extends further, and health becomes one of the factors that shapes it. 

The most useful plans consider where a family can live and invest today, and where they will want to live, work and receive care in the decades ahead.