There I was, sitting in a bank conference room with a client who just sold his business for eight figures. 

He was jovial and talkative, but not for the reason you might expect. 

“I’m glad to be leaving the manufacturing business,” he exclaimed. “I’m sick of meeting with new company vice presidents and engineers who show up at our plant with no clue as to how to read a blueprint, and no idea on how the manufacturing process really works.”

Despite the hefty payday he was receiving, this was a grounded, blue-collar guy who obviously didn’t shy away from colorful language. He was passionate about his work and genuinely concerned about the future of his industry.   

“They waste my $#@! time,” he continued on emphatically, “and never listen. They come to the shop floor with their perfect drawings and precise calculations but within five minutes I spot several problems. So I tell them, ‘If you machine the part that way, it’s going to leave a burr on the edge. Then you’ll have to remove the burr in a separate process or you won’t get the seal you need.’”

As his voice grows louder he raises his hands in disbelief, crying, “And then you know what they do?” 

Pausing for effect, I shrug my shoulders and shake my head no.

“They look at me like I have no idea what I’m talking about. I mean, what the hell do they think,” he chuckles sarcastically, “that the problem will just magically work itself out?”

He ranted on for several minutes about burrs and other problems that most people never worry or think about. I came to learn that most burrs are minuscule, beyond the scope of the naked eye … that they’re technically defined as a raised edge or small piece of material remaining attached to a workpiece after a modification process. It’s an unwanted piece of material that cannot be completely eliminated simply because a tool can’t enter or exit the machining process without leaving a mark. 

There’s a definite parallel between this manufacturing process and the retirement planning process. Many clients start out with a fancy blueprint and a series of precise calculations that they expect will get them to retirement but, along the way, burrs pop up and need to be smoothed out in a separate process. After all, retirement could be considered one of life’s biggest modification processes and, as you might imagine, it’s pretty common for a few raised edges or left over issues to remain after one leaves the work place.

The problem for advisors and financial services companies is that it’s not simply about a nut, screw or bolt that fails. It’s about a client’s overall life satisfaction and well-being. Factors not always easily recalled or retooled for.

Advisors need to realize the significance of these issues and understand that retirement burrs aren’t just going to work themselves out over time. Retirement can be like an additive or compound that actually magnifies problems during this next phase of life. 

 

Retirement is like other life events that modify or change us. It doesn’t automatically dissolve unwanted or leftover parts. In other words, retiring from your job or career won’t necessarily make you happy, feel closer to your spouse, become more motivated to take care of your health or slow down your drinking or use of pain meds. In fact, more time and fewer distractions (which tend to come with retirement) might actually make them worse.

Just as burrs can cause manufacturing problems by concentrating stress, and increasing the risks of corrosion and unwanted friction, proper retirement planning needs more quality control measures to make sure unwanted things don’t govern the aspects everyday retirement life. 

Deburring can also be one of the most costly manufacturing processes. That’s why a lot of time and energy is devoted to positioning the burr so that it can be easily removed, or placed in a spot where it has minimal impact on the part’s functionality.

Sadly, most retirement advisors and clients spend the majority of their time and energy together machining just one single component of a successful transition into retirement … the financial elements. To make matters worse, most of the problems people have in retirement don’t have anything to do with money. They fail because there is a breakdown in one or more of other key aspects of retirement, such as the mental, social, physical or spiritual aspects. 

Retirement burrs can come in the form of a sudden or forced retirement, aging parents, adult children, loss of a loved one, divorce, medical diagnosis, a deteriorating social network, natural aging, depression, addiction, financial loss or some form of fraud, to name a few. The recurring list of potential problems constantly threatening retirees demands that they be treated as facts of life in the retirement planning process. 

Advisors need to develop written policies and procedures for managing these threats and reducing their incidence. That means being up front about the realities of retirement. It’s time to stop painting pretty little picture-perfect lives that will be carefree and easy once they don’t have to show up to work, see their co-workers every day or be a slave to their daily schedule.

We’ve got to tell people there is, in fact, a dark side to retirement, and that if there’s no plan to stay relevant, connected, physically sharp and spiritually engaged, the potential for a breakdown in the machine goes up dramatically. No matter how much money one has, or how modern one’s machining tools and simulators, there are things that can’t be perfectly modeled or engineered when it comes to retirement.

Once the decision has been made to identify retirement burrs, and there’s a plan to address them, the decision to either fix them oneself, or farm out the problem to a qualified “deburring” shop must be made.

Fortunately for advisors, there is a growing list of tools and professionals available to help. The number of books addressing the non-financial aspects of retirement is growing rapidly. Six years ago when I released my book Naked Retirement, few, if any, people even had the concept on their radar. 

 

Now, when I search retirement books at major book retailers, there is a good deal of content regarding marriage and retirement, re-inventing oneself after retiring, starting a retirement business and more nontraditional titles as well. Directing clients to these types of resources can be a great start but, for even greater impact, I suggest including physical or web copies as part of your marketing efforts and client onboarding process. It’s a simple, inexpensive gesture that can go a long way. 

Additional guides, newsletters, blogs and emails on these topics can easily be integrated into your existing marketing efforts; positioning clients to start thinking and planning for potential burrs, instead of hoping they just magically go away. 

Furthermore, the areas of life and retirement coaching are exploding. I’m overwhelmed at times at the number of people who are seeking information, designations and professional affiliations in this area. As a result, training and credibility has been greatly enhanced, allowing advisors the opportunity to hand pick the types of coaches that best fit their clients.

From retired therapists and professors to converted executives coaches and former athletes, there’s an emerging fleet of capable professionals who can provide assessments, testing, workshops, group sessions and even one-on-one meetings that may help your prospects and clients manufacture a better life in retirement. 

In the past, I never thought much about burrs and what goes into a successful manufacturing process, but I now know it mirrors the traditional retirement planning process. 

Manufacturing a successful retirement requires advisors and clients to focus on each and every part instead of assuming one or two components are enough to drive the entire machine. A fancy blueprint, credentials or precise calculations just aren’t enough. Clients need a total process to make sure all the parts of retirement—including the mental, social, physical and spiritual—mesh perfectly with the financial aspects. Doing so can greatly increases quality and functionality of life in retirement.

Robert Laura is the president of SYNERGOS Financial Group, the founder of RetirementProject.org and the creator of the Retirement Wellness Report and DividendPaycheck.org. He can be reached at [email protected].