One of the key positive components of a planned retirement is time – the time to spend pursuing personal interests and fulfilling the bucket list dreams that provided focus during one’s working days.

There is another use of extra free time, however, and it does not exactly come from a positive frame of mind.

Retirees have more time to spend thinking about how their estate is going to be distributed among family members, friends, or charitable interests. While most affluent retirees have at least some of those plans in place prior to retirement, the free time retirement offers provides retirees with the time necessary to nail down any last details that need attention.

The good news is that very few people must go through the process of making final plans without any experience to borrow from. Most adults play some sort of role in the plans of older relatives - be they parents, grandparents or siblings – as they examine and tighten the details of their personal finances for eventual distribution.

Spectrem’s new study examines the impact that results from helping someone else deal with end-of-life financial planning. Down to the Last Detail surveyed investors who played some role in the process of preparing a portfolio for the day when a loved one passes.

The research coming from the Spectrem study is of special interest to advisors working with retired investors, since most investors who are no longer working have played a role in the financial preparations of a family member who has either passed away or is approaching an age where the end of life approach. Those retired investors are also likely at the stage of their life that they reflect on their own preparation and decisions they have made to prepare for their own end of life and what is going to happen to their estate when that time comes.

Focusing on the retired investors surveyed for the study, Down to the Last Detail finds that:

·         Twenty-eight percent of retired investors have been responsible for executing the plans of someone who has passed away, and 25 percent have had some level of involvement in executing the financial plans for someone who has passed away in the past 10 years.

·         Seventy-five percent of retired investors claim that witnessing the passing of a close relative influenced how they make decisions regarding end-of-life decisions. The effect is slightly greater among investors who have played a principal role in executing the financial decisions of a loved one who has passed away.

That’s three-quarters of your retired investors who experienced a wakeup of some sort upon witnessing the death of a loved one. The wakeup likely had some financial component to it, but the research begs the question “Why do investors need to witness the death of a loved one to understand the depth and detail necessary for a proper transfer of wealth upon their death?”

 

 

©2020 Spectrem Group

 

 

Keywords: retirement, estate planning, wealth transfer, investors, advisors, Spectrem, power of attorney