They labeled each of these events as a Life Change Unit (LCU) and gave each one a "weight" in the scale—meaning some events are more stressful than others. The larger the number of LCUs for an individual, the more likely the patient was to become ill.
For advisors, this scale and the subsequent 43 factors can be a great handout, discussion or newsletter article that raises awareness around the need to plan for the non-financial aspects of retirement. Advisors can view a list of the 43 items here. You will notice that the 10th most stressful event on the list is retirement itself!
Below, I have pulled out several of the more prominent factors related to retirement.
• Death of a spouse (Married clients may live alone for some portion of retirement.)
• Divorce (Grey divorce rates continue to climb.)
• Death of a close family member (As we age we lose more family and friends.)
• Personal Injury or illness (think cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or other diagnosis)
• Fired at work (in terms of retirement, forced into retirement)
• Retirement
• Change in health of a family member (aging parent with Alzheimer, spouse with cancer, special needs adult child)
• Sex difficulties (Our bodies change as we age.)
• Change in financial state (Being on a fixed income can cause a lot of retirement arguments.)
• Death of a close friend (impacts social network)
• Change to a different line of work (Retirees with part-time jobs aren’t always happy with the gig.)
• Change in number of arguments with spouse (They tend to go up with more time together in retirement.)
• A large mortgage or loan (Clients not having their home paid off can add stress in retirement.)
• Son or daughter leaving home (Hardest part of raising kids is when they leave.)
• Spouse begins or stops work (changes the routine, roles and expectations)
• Change in living conditions (more time together, aging parent moving in, adult kids coming back home)