Financial planning used to be based on a typical life expectancy of 80, but advisers now base their forecast on the assumption that people will live much longer due to medical advances and healthier lifestyles.

With many people underestimating their own life expectancy and not planning sensibly, The Personal Finance Society (PFS) warns millions could run out of money long before they reach 100.

Keith Richards of the PFS said: “We are concerned that millions of people could be left high and dry as the cash runs out.

“With increasing focus on greater freedom and choice over retirement savings following the introduction of the Government’s sweeping reforms last year, we are becoming increasingly concerned at the spectre of poverty in retirement facing many who burn through their pension savings.

“Professional financial planners will these days assume the maintenance of an income in retirement until age 100: that means factoring in the potential cost of care, inflation and tax. Put simply, if you do make it to 100, as many more of us are these days, then you are a long, long time in retirement. And that needs money.”

Official projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show women will live to 100 by 2055 and men by 2080.

They also suggest that living beyond 100 will become the norm for children born within the next generation and indeed experts predict one in five adults below the age of 35 will exceed a century.

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