• Revision of personal habits (Personal activity will change and if married can disrupt partners routine.)
• Change in residence (downsizing or re-locating)
• Change in social activities (While people think they will do more, they often do less with friends.)
• Change in eating habits (in the refrigerator more and other stresses can cause snacking)
As you can see, retirement can usher in a host of issues that clients may need to deal with or face. Think of someone who is forced into retirement, gets a part-time job and then decides to downsize to save money and be closer to their aging parent. Or the wife whose husband retires at the same time she is diagnosed with breast cancer, while her youngest heads off to college, and her mother recently passed away. In some cases, these would be the lucky ones based on other situations I have come across.
It's not only much more overwhelming than dealing with a broken AC unit, but often times people don’t know who to call, and there are surely no insurance policies to fix a broken retirement. Which is why, advisors need to find ways to have these bridge conversations, and like our home inspector, make clients aware of what might break in or near retirement.
The other thing that this list and article point out is that the fear of running out of money is pretty minuscule when compared to the fear of running out of time, family, friends or health—which makes for another great bridge conversation. Saying something as simple as, “Our goal in working with clients is to not only make sure they don’t run out of money, but hat they also make the most of their time, health, family and friends.”
Like other professional services, advisors have the option to have these bridge conversations themselves or farm them out to other professionals. There is an entire industry of trained retirement coaches who are working with advisors and other organizations to add these more personal interactions.
Whether it’s seminars, workshops, one-on-one meetings, group sessions or a series of online blogs, advisors who have the knowledge and skill to introduce power statistics and information like this with clients can add value to their relationships, play a bigger role in the lives of their clients and help clients avoid feeling unprepared for what retirement may throw at them.
However, it’s important to point out that these can’t be shallow or artificial conversations. Bridge conversations have to be real, stimulating and supportive. As many of you know, a couple years back AARP had its Life Reimagined program. On the surface it looked appealing, but it fell short for one simple reason in my opinion; all of the information was very generalized and didn’t provide enough context and support.