4 Uncomfortable Facts About Early Retirement That Clients Need to Hear

Last week, NFL fans watching the Baltimore Ravens take on the Miami Dolphins were reminded of the unforgiving nature of football as Tua Tagovailoa, the Dolphins’ 24-year-old star quarterback, suffered what appeared to be a severe concussion during the game’s first half.

The injury came less than a week after Tagovailoa appeared to have suffered another significant concussion, this one in a game against the Buffalo Bills. Tagovailoa, after undergoing the NFL’s standard concussion screening protocol, reentered and finished the game against the Bills.

The unfortunate chain of events has resulted in calls from concerned neurologists, journalists and fans of the sport for Tagovailoa to consider an early retirement from the game of football — or at least to take a significant time away for recovery.

For financial advisors, Tagovailoa’s struggles with head injuries and the calls for him to consider an early retirement may call to mind an uncomfortable truth about their own clients, and indeed their own careers: Not everyone gets to retire on their own terms.

Whether one is a star professional football player, a newly tenured university professor or a mid-career technology executive, the possibility of forced retirement is one that must be reckoned with.

Fortunately, advisors and their clients can work together to prepare for such disruptive scenarios and increase the likelihood that a forced stoppage of work, whether due to a health issue or a simple layoff, does not spell financial disaster.

Here are some key insights — and some uncomfortable truths — about unexpected terminations, older workers’ job prospects, and early retirements. Though unexpected late-career terminations are always disruptive, with the right planning in place, they don’t have to be catastrophic.