Planning Retirement in a Modern Environment

Retirement planning (often known as pre-retirement counselling) in organisations is nothing new - but the nature of retirement itself is changing fast! And with these changes come challenges, both for employers and individuals themselves.

People are living longer and the traditional time horizon set aside for ‘retirement’ is extending rapidly. Retirement no longer consists of a few twilight years but now represents a significant part of a person’s life. So significant, in fact, that it is not just one time period at all, but two. First there are the transition years, and only then, the years of growing old gracefully.

Accordingly, individuals need sufficient financial resources to sustain themselves, they need to be in good physical and mental health, they need interests and they need to be leading useful, meaningful, productive lives.

And the nation as a whole needs them to be active and productive. The state cannot by itself entirely fund pensions, health and care needs. Industry cannot afford to foot the whole bill for the pensions necessary, as we are seeing. And the economy is short of the skills and experience that older people have carefully honed over many years.

Therefore, we need a new way of thinking about retirement, a way that plans for this phase of our lives many, many years in advance. A way that does not see retirement as a ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ gold watch occasion. A way that acknowledges that one size does not fit all. A way that individuals and employers can together develop a flexible approach to retirement and an attitude that is good for both employers and employees.

And so, in my prime exists to work with leaders, managers and employees at both strategic and operational levels and can offer a wide range of options in terms of input - from group workshops, through discussion groups and planning sessions, to one-to-one coaching and mentoring, to help organisations grapple with the enormity of these growing issues.

How exactly we work with companies and their mature employees depends entirely on the objectives of both parties and the agreed areas where training and knowledge transfer are required. For some, this may mean practical, technical information about, for example, pensions, investment, and taxation. For others, help, advice and motivation may be needed in such areas as confidence building, and managing change.

Please contact us for further details.

If you would like to read more on what we have to offer, and why, please refer to our primer A New Approach to Retirement Planning and our press release 'Make more of mature workers in 2007 – The challenge for enlightened employers.

(Please note, although our advisors are highly qualified in finance and accountancy, we are not qualified financial advisors and do not have particular products or schemes to promote. Our advice is entirely objective.)