Journal of Financial Planning: September 2025
Alexandra Armstrong, CFP®, is founder and chairman emeritus of Armstrong, Fleming & Moore Inc. (https://afmfa.com). She was one of the first female CFP® practitioners in the United States, as well as the first female president of the IAFP (precursor to FPA). She founded her financial planning firm in 1983 in Washington, D.C. Since then, she has focused on helping women achieve financial independence. She is the coauthor of Your Next Chapter: A Woman’s Guide to a Successful Retirement and the recently revised and updated sixth edition of On Your Own: A Widow’s Passage to Emotional and Financial Well-Being.
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When my coauthor and I decided to write a book helping women to plan for the financial and emotional implications of retirement, we thought it would be a relatively easy task. After all, we had already written a similar book for widows. But as we got into the process, we found out otherwise. Planning for widows is pretty straightforward. Although the cause of the spouse’s death and the age of the widow may differ, there is a starting point (the death) and a timeline that the widow goes through, which can be examined step by step. Eventually the widow recovers from her loss and goes on to the next stage in her life. However, retirement planning is much more complicated. Not only are we helping our client prepare for the initial adjustment to retirement but also for the rest of her life after she retires, which may be as long as 30 or 35 years!
Ironically enough, retirement is the one life event that we as advisers haven’t experienced personally although we advise on how best to handle it based on our experience with clients and their reactions. Now that I have retired from my financial planning practice, I find I have a much broader perspective on what my clients were experiencing and the need to be aware of what my clients might be feeling!
Everyone Is Different
When we start the planning process our client might be married. However, as time goes by, she may become single, which requires a different approach to her retirement planning. In addition to recognizing the longevity of female clients, we also need to consider each woman’s particular circumstances. Does she love working and doesn’t want to stop or is she eager to stop as soon as possible? Can she plan when she wants to retire or is the decision made by her employer or the state of her health (or that of her spouse)? Is her identity and self-worth tied up in her career or not? Since women live longer than men, how long do her assets and income have to last?
In past articles we have examined how retirement planning differs for men and women. It also differs among women. It is a different experience for the wife who hasn’t worked outside the home who has to adjust to her spouse retiring, in contrast to the wife who has been working and has to adjust to her own retirement as well as that of her spouse. Some women are single and some are married—but then become widowed later in retirement. A woman who has children or grandchildren has family responsibilities to consider, compared to the woman who doesn’t have these concerns. Initially, the retiree might be in good health, which may deteriorate as she ages. The retiree may be a caregiver for family members (either parents and/or spouse) or may not have these responsibilities. Here again, as your client ages, she may become a caregiver or need caregiving herself. The bottom line is the process is different for each individual. Let’s examine the various elements of retirement planning that we as advisers need to consider—the financial, the emotional and physical components.
Financial Aspects
Prior to retirement, computing the financial aspects is the easiest part of the planning process. We prepare a report showing what the woman owns and owes, what her income and expenses will be. Here again it’s more complicated if the woman is married. Is she retiring first, or is her spouse, or are they retiring at the same time? This initial report is a snapshot in time.
However, we need to caution our clients that planning for a successful retirement isn’t a one-and-done exercise. We need to plan for the immediate future but then need to keep reviewing the plan regularly to make sure it is still working. Furthermore, we are handicapped by the fact we don’t have a crystal ball. We don’t know how long our client is going to live or how she is going to die. We need to point out that, statistically, if she is married, she probably will outlive her spouse. I think it is important to tell our clients that according to our projections, she may have enough money to support her lifestyle now, but will she have enough 10, 20, or 30 years from now? Who knows what will happen to inflation, interest rates, investments, and taxes during her lifetime? We can use tools like Monte Carlos scenarios in an attempt to attach certainty to something that can’t be certain, but the planning process gets trickier the longer the client lives. So, we must make clear to her that this process is a best guess exercise—and therefore one that has to be regularly reviewed.
When the client moves from the accumulation to the withdrawal stage, it is a big adjustment. No longer does your client have a salary covering her expenses. Instead, we position their investments to replace this earned income. Thus, most advisers suggest that the clients become more conservative in order to protect their assets. This makes sense since the client is no longer working and can’t add to her income from earnings. However, the degree of conservatism will differ with each person. If she has substantial reliable retirement income such as pension and annuity income, she might be able to invest more in equities than the retiree who doesn’t have this reliable source of income. Again, this advice gets tricky if we are considering a married couple as he may have the pension income, which may cease when he dies. If he predeceases his wife, then you will need to adjust the asset allocation of investments. Also, we recommend that retired clients have a larger cash reserve than non-retirees. We find if our clients have a sizeable cash nest egg, they are less likely to panic and sell in a volatile market than if they don’t have this reserve.
Emotional Aspects
As advisers we must recognize that all our lives, we have had goals that we worked toward and achieved. Common goals include completing school, finding a job, getting married (or not), buying your first home, having children (or not), advancing your career, becoming financially stable, and accumulating enough assets so you can retire in comfort. Now as your client faces retirement, she is likely to have no new goals, no more milestones. She has achieved her goals; now she is ready to enjoy the fruits of her labor—or not?
Recognize that, particularly at first, your clients may find that retirement isn’t always what they had envisioned. Suddenly, she goes from having a routine to not having one—from being able to multitask to not needing to do so. Be prepared to recognize that your client might be asking the question, “is that all there is?”
That is why I think we as advisers don’t have to just prepare the financial projections for our clients, we need to spend some time helping them mentally prepare for this next chapter in their lives—actually chapters, as there are many phases to retirement. There is the first stage when your client is doing all the things they wanted to do when they were working but didn’t have time to do—like travel, volunteer, or whatever. Then there is the settling down stage when they have done what they want to do and have a predictable lifestyle, and then the final stage where they slow down as they age and spend more on healthcare.
I have found that particularly in this last stage, they may recognize that they have sufficient assets to last the rest of their lives and may do some serious charitable planning. This is another area that we as advisers can be helpful by giving them objective advice. As we have discussed in previous articles, there are many ways they can leave money to their favorite charities while they are alive or when they die.
Physical and Mental Health
Particularly in the first stage of retirement, encourage your client to follow their dreams—of traveling, hiking, spending time with children/grandchildren, or whatever they want to do while they are physically and mentally able to. Physical and mental health are precious commodities that we often take for granted until we no longer have it. Too often I have seen clients postpone that special trip and then not be able to take it because of physical impediments. One of my favorite questions I ask clients is: “If not now, when?”
Recognize that as your clients age, your financial advice becomes more valuable to them and to their families. Your client needs someone who spends her time following what is going on in the world and can interpret its implications for her. She needs help with such vital decisions as whether to move out of her lifetime home or age in place. It is important particularly in the later stages of your clients’ lives that you put all your recommendations in writing so that she can refer to them later or share them with her children. And speaking of children, as your client ages, encourage your client to have a family meeting to discuss her desires for the distribution of her estate.
In a previous article, we spoke about dementia and how financial advisers are often the first to recognize this happening to clients based on our conversations with them. By alerting other family members, we can help avert some disastrous consequences.
Conclusion
I think retirement planning is the most difficult part of financial planning. Retiring in comfort really is everyone’s ultimate goal. Our greatest gift to our clients is to help them accumulate enough assets so that when they retire, they don’t have to worry about having sufficient resources on which to live. As they say, money can’t buy happiness—but it sure can make life easier!