How do financial advisors retire?

Financial advisors, even though they may have helped hundreds of clients successfully retire, can find their own retirement isn’t an easy transition.

Finding balance is the key to a successful retirement, said Barry LaValley, founder of the Retirement Lifestyle Center, a research company that focuses on the key issues of modern retirement.

“Many financial professionals don’t have a clear understanding of what retirement is, because they made it more of a financial issue,” LaValley said. “They think, ‘You get your number and everything’s going to look after itself.’

“So it’s no surprise that financial advisors have a harder time with this next life stage than other professionals,” he said. “They get to retirement and realize it’s more than cash flow and an estate plan.”

Making the transition

Richard Sawyer

Former MDRT member Richard W. Sawyer remembers the moment when he was at an industry event and one of the speakers asked, “If you had an entire day and didn’t have to think about business or family, you could do anything you’d like to do, what would you do?”

“I was absolutely stuck,” Sawyer said. “It took me 20 years to finally get to the point where I could address and answer that question.”

When Sawyer, of Scarborough, Maine, began to seriously consider retiring, he told his partners he no longer wanted to run the business. He continued to work 20 hours a week, but without the stress of being responsible for the company. Then one morning as he approached his office, without thinking, he passed it by and kept driving. He spent the day on the coast of Maine taking photos until after sunset.

“I spent a day doing what I love to do, and time just went by,” he said. “It was absolutely wonderful.” It also made Sawyer, an MDRT member for more than 30 years at that point, realize his work as a financial advisor was over.

Sawyer, who retired four years ago, was passionate about photography as a hobby. He realized this next phase of his life could include photography as a career.

“I gave up all my licenses. I didn’t want any limitations,” he said. “I was moving on.”

Read more in “Who teaches advisors to retire?” 

Written by Liz DeCarlo, MDRT’s Round the Table editor

For more information on retiring and succession planning, try the following Round the Table articles:

• “Know your practice’s worth“
• “What successors need to know“