10 Resolutions For the Retirement Industry

BOSTON (MainStreet) -- Heading into 2012, one can only hope that the economy improves and retirement plans continue to recover.

But whatever good news, bad news and curveballs the next 12 months bring, we offer the following 10 resolutions we hope folks who earn their living providing retirement services will consider making:

If 2008 didn't make it clear, the party's over. And that means it's time for the retirement industry to make some profession-healthy resolutions for the new year.

1. We'll say enough already with the golf courses and beaches.
For 2012, we urge a resolution that retirement marketing focus more on the reasonable dreams of real people, not the flights of fancy wealthier clients may harbor.

A good chunk of retirement-related advertisements, Web sites and brochures continue to focus on dreams rather than reality.

An often repeated TV commercial for Schwab(SCHW) mocks the idea of "owning a vineyard" as a golden age goal. That campaign is spot on. It wasn't that long ago that a fantasy life in later years was the carrot that led folks to seriously consider saving more, but post-recession, survey after survey is showing that the public cares more about comfort and maintaining their present lifestyle rather than leaping into some new, exotic or expensive chapter of life.

T. Rowe Price(TROW) earlier this year unveiled a strategy it calls the "practice retirement." Its advice: Have fun while you are still working and, therefore, still have the income to offset the costs of travel, hobbies and major purchases. A momentary retreat from fastidious saving late in life won't hurt your prospects much, and could actually help get some initial spending out of the way.

That approach may very well reveal that what seems like a great idea for retirement living doesn't always pan out. One adviser tells us of a client who had been saving up to buy post-retirement property at a golf resort. A few weeks into retirement, he abandoned that plan because after daily rounds of golf he was reminded, once again, of how bad he is at it and how much he can hate the game. He discovered, in the nick of time, that fantasy isn't always reality.