A successful retirement is about a lot more than money.
To truly prepare their clients for the challenges of retirement, advisors should look beyond financial matters and begin incorporating emotional, mental and physical issues into the planning process, said retirement experts speaking on “When To Retire—Or Not,” a panel discussion at the 9th Annual Inside Retirement conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
“When we talk to clients and say ‘Look, you’re ready to retire,’ it’s not as simple as that,” said Gail Graham, principal of Graham Strategy. “Advisors have to be more able to provide advice on all the aspects of that decision to retire.”
Retirement carries implications for a person’s physical and mental well-being that cannot be ignored. For example, retirees who have already lived a sedentary lifestyle may see their physical well-being deteriorate after leaving the workforce, and those with small social circles and few friends may withdraw further from interaction and become depressed.
Exacerbating such issues is the possibility that retirement is triggered by a loss of employment or a health issue, causing a client to retire earlier than expected, said Megan Gorman, retirement author and founder of the Wealth Intersection, a San Francisco-based financial thought leadership platform.
Gorman described a client who had sufficient assets for retirement, but was terminated from his job while in his mid-60s.
“Early retirement triggered a depression in him, and when you’re working with someone with depression who goes through this, they spiral,” said Gorman. “They’re looking for someone to stabilize them; it’s a quite common situation. As an advisor, you have to stand still, you have to be the anchor. We had calls day after day. He became convinced in his depression that he was losing money and didn’t have enough to retire. I found that by sharing with him every day that he did have enough money, it did stabilize him, but he really needed psychiatric help.
“The good news about his situation is that he did reach back out to me after a few weeks when he was stabilized on medication and said, ‘I appreciate that you stuck with me.’”
For men, retirement often triggers identity questions, said Financial Advisor contributor and financial coach Robert Laura, because men often place their career at or near the center of their lives.
Laura noted that financial industry marketing and the popular narrative about retirement focuses on affluent, happy retirees, painting an unrealistic picture of the issues that advisors and clients are often faced with. Retirement is often portrayed as a destination where dreams come true.
“It’s common to hear people say you have to retire to something, but the reality is that you have to retire with something,” said Laura. “I can’t tell you how many times I hear people say, ‘When I retire, I have to do this, when I retire, I have to do that.’ If you’re already the kind of person who worries a lot, sits on the couch all day and visits the fridge, you’ll just end up with more time to do those things.” One thing it’s important to do is connect with people, he said.