America Rethinks Retirement as Boomers Age

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheStreet) -- Andy Sieg, head of retirement & philanthropic services at Bank of America(BAC), described "a critical, transformative time in the world of retirement and benefits" during a speech this month at the SPARK National Conference , an annual event for the retirement services industry.

Seventy-six million baby boomers are getting ready to retire. About 43% of Americans say they have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Almost a quarter of workers plan to postpone retirement and only 16% of workers are confident they are saving enough for retirement.

Rather than echo the doom and gloom of many in his field, Sieg sees long-term positives in how America is rethinking retirement. He spoke to TheStreet last week about his view of the changing landscape.

Is there a crisis ahead with so many baby boomers entering retirement in the next few years?

Sieg: I don't see this as a crisis. Before our eyes we are witnessing a redefinition of retirement. I think we are going to see, very quickly, that our old vision of retirement, where individuals stopped working at age 62 or 65, moved to Florida and spent 20 years on the beach or playing golf is about as modern and fashionable as a 1970s leisure suit.

If you go back to when Social Security was founded, the average life expectancy was not much older than the age at which you became eligible. With people living so much healthier, for so much longer, there really is a whole new phase of life being created. We are going to see what we used to consider retirement turn much more into a phase of renewal and it is going to have a wide-ranging societal impact.

This new definition of "retirement" must present a particular challenge for financial advisers and wealth managers.

The flip side of having so many options in terms of how these later years of one's life are spent is the need for advice that is broader and deeper than ever before.

We do a quarterly affluent investor study. In one of them we asked recent retirees whether, in the wake of the Great Recession, if they had it to do all over again, in terms of thinking about retirement, would they have spent more time focused on the numbers or more time spent on developing their personal vision for retirement. Over 50% said they wish they had spent more time on developing their vision.

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