3 ways to help boomers retire

Baby boomers are beginning to turn 65, but many may have decided to work longer.

Here’s how to restart the retirement conversation with boomer clients.

• Figure out the client’s retirement date (if they’ve decided to work past 65). Start by showing what their retirement would look like if they stopped working today, and run projections based on the existing portfolio with conservative growth figures of 3%. Schedule a conversation a few months later to check in on progress.
• Introduce two destabilizing events—one black swan (like a new market crash), and one sizable and unexpected late-in-life cost. If revised projections show the portfolio can survive, the client will be reassured. If it won’t, focus on how you can respond. Some ideas include using a laddered system of GICs that covers three to four years of living expenses and allows the client to leave market-tied investments in place to ride out losses.
• If your client has decided to delay retirement, understand his emotions surrounding the decision. The numbers come second. For clients particularly hesitant to reset their retirement dates, or for whom delaying retirement is seen as failure, Ian Adams, senior financial planning consultant at ScotiaMcLeod, suggests raising the possibility of part-time work. Also, consider consulting, rather than choosing a fixed date. Then, you can frame that transition period as a chance for the client to take a job related to a personal interest, for instance.

Read more: Get them on board >