4) Work Is What You Do, Not Who You Are
Too many people confuse who they are with what they do. This condition once only plagued men, but is now equally prevalent among career women. It can be compounded when they love their work, but don’t realize their work can’t love them back; be it a computer, managerial control, fixed schedule, deadlines, or routine. It’s a situation that can affect anyone, from a professional athlete, CEO, doctor, retail manager or assembly line worker. A sudden inability to equate what one does with who one is can cause an individual to lose her sense of purpose and stability.
Instead of allowing clients to end up lost and heartbroken once they retire, advisors can help clients ease the transition by asking pointed questions, such as: “Are you going to let work define you, or find a way to define yourself outside of work?” and “What aspects of work are going to be the most difficult for you to replace?” By helping the client prepare for what can happen to them emotionally instead of just financially, advisors increase the value they provide to a client, improving the complete retirement experience instead of just the financial aspects.
5) Retirement Is A Oxymoron
A cruel reality of retirement is that it takes the very things people think they are leaving behind in order to make a successful transition. Specifically, work, goals, timelines and schedule. Advisors and clients alike have been led to believe it’s the ideal stage of life, where stress and worry are replaced with peace and joy. Where long walks on the beach and watching your children succeed in business and grandchildren graduate from Ivy League schools trump health issues and the loss of loved ones.
Many people create mental retirement thoughts and plans, but don’t take the time to share them with a spouse, family members and friends. This can create fertile ground for future disagreements, as well as disappointments when those mental expectations aren’t met. As financial professionals ,it’s important for us to stop painting retirement as perfect, stress free and without many of other life’s challenges.
It may seem better to avoid these conversations with clients, but we are gatekeepers and should help them see retirement as it will be, not as they hope it will be. We should help clients see that the best way to approach retirement is by using the skills that made them successful at work.
If retirement is like an iceberg, with 90 percent of what’s really happening taking place below the surface, then advisors today should take some lessons from the Titanic. To help clients avoid sinking once they decide to call it quits, remember that an amateur built the Ark but a large group of professionals built the Titanic. That means you should never be afraid to step outside of your suit-and-tie role in favor of getting real with your clients. If a client is worried about retirement, or missing the boat, remind them of the lucky few who missed the Titanic’s only voyage; other opportunities will come along. Finally, don’t let your clients start a voyage like the Titanic, which never found a port to settle into. Help them find their own safe haven sheltered from the storms. Take the extra time, energy and effort to help them see, understand, and plan for the things that no one tells them about retirement.
Robert Laura on Twitter @robertlaura. He is the president of SYNEGOS Financial group, co-founder of RetirementProject.org, creator of the Laddered Dividend Portfolio and author of Naked Retirement. If this article was helpful to you, let him know by leaving a comment or sending him an e-mail. Ask about his free guide, Three Things No One Tells You About Retirement.