14 Who Should Be My Retirement Team?
Dale hadn’t realized how much help she would need navigating her way from her work life into retirement. She had assumed that things would take care of themselves. That assumption hadn’t been the case. Dale instead found herself taking on one administrative chore after another, almost always with the help of one professional or another. Dale finally got her will and trust in place with a lawyer’s help. She reinvested her retirement savings in new funds meeting her new financial goals, with a financial advisor’s help. Her insurance agent helped her get supplemental health insurance when she qualified for Medicare. And her banker helped her calculate when to start her Social Security retirement benefits to maximize her probable payout. And that didn’t even count the help of Dale’s medical team. Dale was glad, though, that she had such a strong team.
Team
If raising a child takes a village, then retiring a worker takes a team. Frankly, retiring can be a lot more complex than it at first looks. Retirement may sound like little more than turning in your keys at work. But in truth, a sound and secure retirement can require or benefit from involving several professionals and trusted others. Issues having to do with healthcare, mental health, home services, finances, government programs, insurance, legal matters, and qualifying for assisted living or a nursing facility can all take skilled advice and representation. You may prefer to handle your affairs alone and may even have substantial research and administrative skills and experience. Yet retirement issues can not only be sufficiently arcane and complex but can also require the action of qualified professionals, whether to execute financial transactions, draft and file or record legal documents, or order medical equipment and prescribe medications and therapies. Don’t attempt to go it alone. Instead, build yourself a strong retirement team.
Family
Intimate family members or close and trusted friends should ideally be the core of your retirement team. Family members may, of course, help you in retirement in several comforting and reassuring ways. But they can also assume formal duties to assist you. As the guides Help with Your Legacy and Help with Your Demise both describe, by your retirement years, you should have in place a will and other estate-planning documents, and a healthcare power of attorney. A will requires designating a personal representative of your probate estate to carry out the will’s directives. A healthcare power of attorney similarly requires designating a trusted individual to direct your healthcare in the event of your mental incompetence. A trusted family member, especially a spouse or adult child, typically serves in both fiduciary capacities. Your family or close-friend designee should be keeping in close contact with you over your health, interests, and relationships. Not everyone has someone to serve in that capacity. In that case, a social worker, case manager, attorney, or other professional having the skills and experience of a professional guardian or conservator may serve. But you need someone who is ready to care out your wishes as to your healthcare if incompetent and estate after your demise.
Physician
Your personal physician should also be a key member of your retirement team. You’ve seen in the above chapters that your good medical health goes a long way toward determining the success of your retirement. Give your personal physician the opportunity to contribute toward that goal. Keep regular checkups. Attend prepared to ask questions and address specific issues concerning your health. Follow the medical regimens that your physician and other healthcare professionals, including nurses and physician assistants, recommend, prescribe, and administer. Do your own research, and get second and third opinions, but also keep on your retirement team a physician whom you trust and who knows you, your medical history, and your character and preferences. If you find that your physician lacks expertise in geriatrics concerns, then ask for a referral to a physician with greater expertise helping elderly patients or to a geriatrics specialist. Keep a qualified physician on your team.
Therapist
The physical decline in capabilities that come with aging not only warrant a retiree’s special attention but can also warrant keeping a physical or occupational therapist on your retirement team. Your physical issues late in life may be a bad neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, or hand in the upper body and extremities, or a bad back, hip, knee, ankle, or foot through your torso and down into your lower extremities. Whatever your physical issues are, though, a physical therapist may be able to help you strengthen muscles, stabilize joints, relieve nerves, reduce swelling, and preserve, regain, or improve function. A little physical therapy here and there may also avoid major surgery and the need for extensive hospital care in recovery. An occupational therapist may likewise be able to help you adapt your practices or modify your home and household routines to preserve your independence in your retirement home. A physician, surgeon, and other medical care providers may be great help. But make a physical therapist a part of your team, too, and you may avoid more-invasive medical care.
Counselor
The mental decline retirees can face as they age may also warrant having a psychologist, mental health counselor or therapist, pastor, or other mental, emotional, and spiritual advisor on your retirement team. The challenges of aging aren’t purely physical. Indeed, the mental challenges of aging can be greater than the physical challenges. Just as you can benefit from medical intervention, support, and assistance for your physical health issues, you may also benefit from mental-health counseling, care, and support. Don’t place the full burden of your mental and emotional issues on your spouse, adult children, or friends. They may not have the skills and insight to give you the guidance, support, and other help that you need. You should also preserve your family and friend relationships for their appropriate purposes. If you don’t know of an effective counselor, then locate one from word of mouth, physician or pastor referral, or online research and reviews. A consult now and then may be all that you need to keep a proper outlook.
Financial
Retirement can bring abundant new financial issues and concerns, as the chapter above on retirement finances illustrated. You should have skilled and trustworthy financial experts on your retirement team, even well before your retirement. You may need on your team a trustworthy accountant or bookkeeper for your business matters, a tax preparer for your tax returns and questions, an investment advisor to help manage your retirement savings, and a banker to assist with your financial transactions. You may have had long relationships with these financial providers, well before retirement. If so, and if your financial advisors know retirement issues, then maintain and rely on those relationships as you begin to deal with retirement issues. Your tax filings, investment strategies, and banking needs may all change with retirement. Let your financial advisors help you make those changes promptly and effectively, so that you have assured your best financial outlook for retirement.
Legal
Legal issues can also increase with retirement. You may have already executed a will well before retiring and may thus already have a professional relationship with a trusted lawyer. But retirement can bring changes in finances, family relationships, and other relationships and interests, requiring that you amend or replace your will. You may also benefit from a trust or other estate-planning documents as your finances and living arrangements, and the needs of your heirs, change. You should also have a healthcare power of attorney and may benefit from a financial and legal power of attorney. Again, see the guides Help with Your Legacy and Help with Your Demise. Legal issues may also arise with respect to the sale of your residence, purchase or rental of transitional housing, and qualifying for Medicaid support for assisted living expenses, among other financial, residential, and personal interests. Keep a trusted lawyer on your retirement team.
Social
You may also benefit from having a social worker familiar with the needs and interests of elderly clients on your retirement team. Geriatric social workers have the training and skill to help families assess the needs of their elderly members, form plans for their safe and secure care, and identify and coordinate services, equipment, and other resources. If, for instance, you don’t know a good physician assisting elderly patients, a trustworthy local lawyer with an estate-planning practice, financial advisors, physical therapists, and other professionals providing retirees with needed services, a social worker may be just the one to connect you with those professionals and coordinate their services. If you lack a local family member or trusted friend to advocate for you with those professionals and with government agencies and other service providers, a social worker may fill that role, too. Put a skilled and experienced social worker at the head of your retirement team.
Specialists
When you come to the point of needing to evaluate whether you can remain in your home with increasing disability due to injury, illness, or advanced age, you may also benefit from consulting with certified aging-in-place specialists (CAPS), geriatric care managers (GCMs), occupational therapists, and aging life care experts, as the prior chapter addressed. Don’t leave it to inexperienced family members or even to an ordinary physician or social worker to make judgments about your ability to remain in your home with appropriate modifications and services. Instead, retain the specialist professional whose training is specifically for that work.
Agents
Your transition out of your long-term home and into a new retirement home or into assisted living may benefit from the services of a real estate agent. If you must sell your home, you may need the services of a listing agent. A skilled real estate agent can help you set the price, stage the home for sale, show the home, evaluate offers, negotiate a favorable sales price, deal with contingencies, and complete the closing. Your real estate agent may also be able to help you locate and rent or purchase a condominium, or rent an apartment, as transitional housing between your long-term home and assisted living. A real estate agent can be a key part of your retirement team, not just for the actual transactions you need but also for advice on whether, when, and how to sell your home and purchase or rent another residence.
Pastor
A pastor or other spiritual advisor can also be a key member of your retirement team. Pastors can have special counseling skills, addressing not just personal, social, family, and relational issues but also spiritual issues. A pastor may be able to help you see the big picture, let go of guilt or judgment over the past, heal in your soul and spirit, and look forward with hope and expectation to passing into the great beyond. Pastors can also be sound advisors for whether you need other forms of support, whether relating to your medical condition, housing or financial situation, and legal issues. A pastor can also be a helpful mediator with family members and community members who may not understand your needs and interests. And a pastor can keep you connected with your church community and the services and fellowship your church community can provide, while also supporting your interest in giving back to the church community. Keep your pastor on your retirement team.
Director
A funeral director can also be a helpful member of your retirement team, even if mostly later in your retirement years. At any time during retirement, you may have thoughts, concerns, or questions regarding your funeral, burial, and memorial. Funeral directors can help you share those thoughts, address those concerns, and answer those questions. A funeral director, for instance, may help you and your family members pick out a burial plot, design a memorial marker, and even plan a memorial service, if those actions would put your mind at ease and help reduce confusion, conflicts, and burdens on your family. Put those plans in place when you have the peace and clarity of mind, even if early in your retirement. Having those plans in place can give you and your family peace of mind throughout your retirement.
Reflection
Make a list of the above professionals with whom you have already dealt and would like to continue to deal. Are they still available to you? Have they been competent, trustworthy, and helpful to you, or would you prefer to find someone else to take their place? Which of the above professionals do you lack on your retirement team? Do you have a family member willing to be your personal representative? Are you satisfied with your family physician’s skill and experience helping older patients? Or do you need to locate a geriatrician? Do you have a physical therapist on your team? Do you have a mental-health counselor of some kind on your team? Would you benefit from a social worker’s help coordinating professional services? Do you need to confirm your church membership and relationship with a pastor, as part of your retirement team? Would a real estate agent be able to help you evaluate whether, when, and how to sell your home, and what amount in finances you might realize in doing so? Would consulting a funeral director help you choose burial and memorial plans, putting you and your family at ease, with sound peace of mind?
Key Points
You will need a team of professionals to navigate all retirement issues.
You will need a close family member to serve as your representative.
Your family physician should be a key part of your retirement team.
A physical therapist may be a key member of your retirement team.
A mental-health counselor can strengthen your retirement team.
Keep a financial advisor, tax preparer, and banker on your team.
A trustworthy estate-planning lawyer should be on your team.
A social worker can help you recruit and coordinate team services.
Geriatrics specialists can help you evaluate your home independence.
A real estate agent can help you evaluate and complete your home sale.
A pastor or other spiritual advisor can be a key member of your team.
A funeral director can help ease your mind about memorial plans.