The business guru Peter Drucker once said (something like) "technology is not the greatest challenge of age, but demography is". 2012 is the year when two of the great issues of our age,retirement and long-term funding,are scheduled to (hopefully) get the attention they deserve.
In Spring, the White paper on social care is expected, following on from the Dilnot recommendations last year. Hopefully it will not fudge the funding challenges which we face.
From October, the auto-enrolment of employees into pensions schemes and the launch of NEST (National Employment Savings Scheme) will start to make their mark and will hopefully be well supported and promoted by employees.
These two areas are massive issues and let's hope that the financial services industry also plays a major part in this process, not just to boost their own business potential but to do some social good too.