RETIREMENT
Now think about the person I quoted at the beginning of this article— about how things that felt right for him before suddenly feel wrong in retirement. That doesn’ t mean his risk tolerance has completely changed or that it’ s time to cash everything out and hide it under the mattress. Instead, it means that an advisor should be developing a skill set to better understand how changes in his personal life may affect his financial life, especially in the first few years of retirement.
What I’ m really saying to financial professionals is this: Don’ t respond to your clients’ concerns by offering them generic reassurance. It’ s easy to default to“ This is just another market downturn” or“ We’ re in it for the long haul,” but those responses can fall flat. Clients navigating multiple layers of change aren’ t looking for clichés— they’ re looking to feel heard and understood.
I’ m fortunate in that I was trained as a social worker before I became a financial professional. I enjoy talking with clients, because for me it’ s not just about managing their money but also about supporting them psychologically and discussing their everyday lives and legacy. And unfortunately, soft-skills training like this, the kind I learned as a social worker, is lacking in our industry. We’ ve avoided it because we assume it can’ t be monetized.
Yet it’ s going to be the new standard that we humanize retirement planning— not just because it helps us grow our client base but because it helps us retain it: What AI, robo-advisors and fee compression can’ t replicate is how we support our clients emotionally, looking beyond the numbers. That human element is our true value.
Advisors can help clients feeling retirement anxiety with a three-step process( something we teach in our Certified Professional Retirement Coach program):
What AI, robo-advisors and fee compression can’ t replicate is how we support our clients emotionally, looking beyond the numbers.
1. Normalization
In this step, we help the client exhale. We try to get them away from thinking“ Something is wrong with me,” and instead get them thinking,“ This is a common problem and other people have moved through it.” The main goal of this step is to reduce their isolation as well as negative self-judgment, helping them realize that they are not alone.
2. Offering Context
This step is about giving the client a“ bigger picture” about their experience and showing them how retirement transitions usually impact their identity, routines, relationships, meaning and emotions. For example, I often recite the details I shared above with clients about the 43 most stressful events and I add,“ Much of what you are sharing is very common and a normal part of the retirement transition.”
Advisors can also use their own experience to provide context. It can be as simple as sharing with them how another client of yours went through an experience with retirement anxiety similar to theirs and came out with a new or better perspective. Even discussing something more personal like a retirement experience you observed with a parent or grandparent can add value and context. Either way, advisors can help clients better understand common patterns and explain transition dynamics.
3. Giving Them Permission
In retirement, many people are still feeling bound by rules about work, family, productivity and the avoidance of social stigmas. What you will do is give them permission to“ loosen the scripts” so they can feel and think differently. Perhaps they can open new doors, recover parts of themselves that were pushed down for years in the name of responsibility, sacrifice or success.
For example, advisors could ask clients,“ What would it look or feel like for you to do creative work, even if you’ re not‘ good at it’?” Or what if you told them that resting is productive— not simply about laziness, which is the script they’ ve likely taken to heart? You want to validate their desire to be seen and recognized for who they are now, instead of who they were, and let them know that pain and heartaches can coexist with joy and hope.
Despite your best efforts as a financial professional and despite equally good intentions from the client, the lives that they have been planning for can and likely will change. So it’ s more important than ever for you to develop your soft skills— to recognize the change in your clients’ lives and help them not only understand it but also to adapt and align their portfolio to match.
ROBERT LAURA is the founder of The Wealth & Wellness Group and the Retirement Coaches Association, and he’ s the author of the best-selling book Retirement Intelligence. He can be reached at rl. robertlaura @ gmail. com.
54 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | MAY / JUNE 2026 WWW. FA-MAG. COM