By BNY Investments

Retirement is often portrayed as a time of unambiguous pleasure – long holidays, time with family and friends, the pursuit of hobbies and interests. The reality is not always so benign. While retirees may relish escaping their more difficult colleagues or a tyrannical boss, retirement brings its own pressures.

Retirement is ranked 10th on the list of life’s most stressful events . It can even be hazardous to health. A recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that retirees were 40% more likely to have had a heart attack or stroke than those who were still working at the same age . While it is difficult to determine cause or effect, a UK study showed twice the number of retired individuals with chronic conditions such as diabetes, stroke or cancer than their counterparts who are still working .

There are many reasons why retirement might be a difficult time for individuals. The loss of a social network, for example, may play a role. People can become lonely and isolated without the daily routine of going to the office. They also have to adjust to a change in identity and purpose. Shaking off the shackles of a to-do list may sound fantastic, but days with no clear structure may be difficult to navigate. In a British Psychological Society (BPS) survey on retirement, women repeatedly used the word ‘boring’ and complained about the ’emptiness’ of their post-retirement lives .

The approach to retirement will be personal and individuals will vary in the resources they have to refashion their lives, but it is clear that certain types of people may find it particularly difficult. BPS says: “For those whose sense of self is tied to their work identity, retirement can be a daunting prospect. The lack of challenges and excitement that daily work brought to their lives is reflected in loss of self-esteem and sense of contributing to society.”

It is also true that the financial aspects of retirement may be more stressful than for previous generations. Without the security of defined benefit pension schemes, retirees have to navigate investment markets and may have less certainty over the income they can expect. Equally, many retirees will enter their later years with greater debt than their predecessors.

Too much of a change?

Advisers are increasingly finding that these emotional aspects are influencing people’s retirement plans. In the BNY Investment report Retirement Advice in the UK: Time for a Change? one certified financial planner said: “I’m certainly finding more and more that a lot of people are putting it off because they are worried about what’s happening. It’s quite easy to get paid every month, and you see the money coming in, you’ve got that financial security, you’re going to work, and you’ve got a routine. And then all of a sudden that stops. I’ve got all this time in the world, and I don’t know what I’m doing with myself and those people that I know are suddenly disappearing out of my life and my routine’s gone. And it’s massive. I’ve witnessed this a lot more over the last five or 10 years.”

This has financial planning implications as well. A quarter of financial advice professionals surveyed say some of their clients are stepping back into the workforce, and 8% say this is true for the majority of their clients. A fifth of advised clients said they were somewhat or very likely to use retirement lump sums to clear outstanding debts. A quarter of financial advisers had heard similar intentions from their clients. This is changing the type of advice that people need as they retire, and advisers are increasingly finding they need additional skills to help with the emotional side of a client’s retirement as well as the financial side.

Another certified financial planner said: “Twenty years ago, working in the retirement space was quite simple. Somebody had worked somewhere for maybe 30 or 40 years. They were planning on retiring at 65 because they’d had enough, and they just wanted to make sure they’d got enough income. And you just sorted that out. And that was the conversation, really. It was very transactional. It was very dull. Now, you’ve got people coming from all different angles but the general consensus for most people is they just can’t stop doing something. It’s too much of a change.”

A lifestyle plan

The CEO of a small financial planning firm said: “There has been a real shift in the last two or three years, and the way advice is being delivered around being much more about a lifestyle plan, rather than just the numbers.” One interviewee noted that new clients are often surprised by the breadth of the planning conversation, indicating that client perceptions of the advisory process have yet to fully align with advisers’ expanding focus. A strong theme from the in-depth interviews that accompanied the report was that clients needed more support on the wider implications of transitioning into retirement. Advisers are already taking action. For example, some advisory groups are producing guides for their clients to work out their purpose in retirement rather than just presenting them with a financial plan.

Although around half of clients say they are not interested in receiving advice on the non-financial aspects of retirement, that leaves a lot who would welcome support. Advisers say it is a situation that needs to be handled delicately, with many not recognising that it might be a problem for them.

“The trick for us is to not jump in, because it sometimes can be quite an uncomfortable silence, because they don’t know how to answer, they’re not expecting it. And then actually, when they do start to talk, then you get to the bottom of it and they start to open up.”

For some people, retirement will be a pleasure, and those with financial advisers are likely to have greater security than those without. However, retirement is not as straightforward as it was, and the emotional transition may be more complex. Advisers increasingly have a role in hand-holding their clients though all aspects of retirement, not just the financial implications.

Source: Research conducted by NextWealth for BNY Investments, based on responses to surveys with 208 retirement-focused financial advisers and 254 consumers of retirement advice conducted between 9 September 2024 and 21 September 2024.

References:

  1. https://www.stress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Holmes-Rahe-Stress-inventory.pdf
  2. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-retirement-good-for-health-or-bad-for-it-201212105625
  3. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/retirement-health-and-wellbeing
  4. https://bps.org.uk/psychologist/retirement-health-and-wellbeing
  5. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/retirement-health-and-wellbeing

For Professional Clients only. Any views and opinions are those of the author, unless otherwise noted. This is not investment research or a research recommendation for regulatory purposes.

For further information visit http://www.bnymellonim.com. Doc ID: 2214101. EXP 22 Jan 2026