Reflections on a year of insight into the Voice of the Retiree

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Standard Life’s Voice of the Retiree programme focusses on the human aspect of the retirement journey. Through regular research, we identify underlying characteristics that appear to influence how people think about, talk about and plan for retirement. We speak with around 5,500 adults throughout the year, engaging with them through our quarterly survey, the Retirement Pulse, and through focus groups.

The Retirement Pulse, now entering its 15th year in field, gives us a wealth of data to tap into trends and influential characteristics. To interrogate the data and meaningfully understand how these characteristics shape the retirement journey, we run focus groups where the Voice of the Retiree really comes to life.

At this time of year we begin to look at our year’s work and distil the research into key insights that will make up our annual report, Bringing retirement into focus, and support our Engagement team in developing compelling communications that help advisers and their clients navigate themes impacting today’s retirement journey. While the analysis has just started, we can already see key themes emerging.

Identity and engagement

Brian Mooney, Standard Life’s End of Career guidance counsellor, often speaks on the topic of identity and how it shapes how we settle into and succeed in our second life. For many of us, we spend the greater part of our lives working. We invest a lot of ourselves into carving out a career that inevitably forms the fabric of who we identify as. But what happens when that fabric starts to unravel?

When we retire without reconciling with the shifting aspects of our identity, that’s what it can often feel like – an unravelling. It’s an unpleasant feeling and it can impact our decision-making and wellbeing on the journey to and through retirement. Occupation is a significant aspect of identity for so many of us, but our research indicates that there’s a geographical and cultural element of identity at play in the retirement experience in Ireland. Where you live and having a sense of place influences how retirement-ready people feel and how they engage with retirement planning.

We’ve taken a deeper dive into the geographic influence on retirement this year. It’s not only fascinating but incredibly useful for those of us in the industry to understand. Why are adults in certain regions consistently happier in retirement? What’s driving a greater sense of purpose among adults in certain regions? Most importantly, learning more about this, what can we do to help bridge the geographic gaps and help more people across Ireland plan for their second life with confidence?

Polarising views

Is the glass half full? It depends on which half of the unretired population you ask. According to our 2023 findings, just under half of adults said they were looking forward to retirement and were prioritising saving for it. The other half viewed retirement as something that was inevitably going to happen to them and were deferring thinking about it until then.

We’re eagerly anticipating analysis on how this has trended in 2024 data but from observing our recent focus groups, we can see that clear polarisation is evident. Some participants were keenly anticipating their second lives and engaged very positively with discussion on our retirementreadiness indicators – feeling financially prepared, socially connected, and purposefully engaged. For others, a large emotional adjustment was required.

Resonating with the Voice of the Retiree

At our nationwide roadshows in recent months, we had the opportunity to speak with advisers about the Voice of the Retiree programme and saw how the value of these insights resonates. Advisers shared their own observations, and we touched on strategies and resources available to help clients across the spectrum of belief systems and at various points along the retirement journey. Many of these resources can be accessed through our Retirement Hub or through our popular Second Life client events, reach out to your Business Manager for more information. 

We also engage the media to join us in amplifying the Voice of the Retiree to positively influence more people to take action. This year, that voice was shared on primetime TV when Second Life mentor, Sonya Lennon, spoke with the Six O’ Clock show about the insights gleaned through her work on our Ultimate Guide for Women and Pensions podcast.

The Voice of the Retiree was amplified in national and regional papers as journalists continue to engage with our Retirement Pulse. There have also been numerous cases of advisers referencing our insight in their own media engagements. Collectively, we’ve reached almost 7 million people this year through the Voice of the Retiree.

What’s next on the horizon?

Standard Life is passionate and genuinely committed to doing what’s right by and for our customers. The continued investment and development of our Voice of the Retiree programme is a testament to this. To do right by our customers, we need to truly understand them – know their needs, hopes, fears and shared experiences. To do right for our customers, we need to be able to connect this understanding with those who are poised to help them – financial advisers, proposition builders, policy influencers and the media.

So, what’s next? It’s time for our team to roll up their sleeves, gather the spreadsheets and dig deeper into the data. The next edition of Bringing retirement into focus will be available early 2025.

Download the current edition of  Bringing retirement into focus.

For printed copies, please contact your Business Manager.
 

A version of this article is available to read in the December 2024 edition of Irish Broker Magazine.