That’s the game-changing statement and a powerful way to reverse a trend where early retirement leads to increased chances of depression, addiction, Alzheimer’s and premature death. As I have said in previous articles, this can and should be accomplished in a variety of ways—from general conversations with clients, to newsletters, blogs, videos and more.
One tool I know a variety of advisors use is simply requesting reprints of articles like this and sharing them with clients. Other strategies could include partnering with a certified professional retirement coach, marriage and family therapist, psychologist or other non-financial retirement expert to deliver this message.
But please make sure they are trained well in this area since more and more people are calling themselves coaches just because they have access to some new software or have been trained to do pre-retirement assessments. I would also encourage advisors to get up to speed on all of these non-financial topics, because if clients aren’t already bringing them up in discussions with you, then they are talking to someone else about it.
Advisors have an opportunity to reshape the future of retirement planning by making sure their clients aren’t seduced into early retirement based on financial factors alone. Yes, early retirement can be sexy and appealing, but it can also be one of the most dangerous forms of retirement if it doesn’t include plans to replace the mental, social and physical aspects of work as well.
Robert Laura is the president of SYNERGOS Financial Group, the founder of RetirementProject.org and a pioneer in Certified Retirement Coach training. He can be reached at [email protected].