The New Retirement Mindscape^®

Ameriprise Financial's New Retirement Mindscape study may have given a first look at how baby boomers will reinvent retirement. The study identified one particular group of retirees, Empowered Reinventors, who stand out as role models for future retirees as they eagerly approach retirement and view it as an exciting new chapter in their lives.

"With life expectancies much longer now, boomers are looking at retirement as the start of a whole new phase of life," said Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., CEO of Age Wave, who worked with Ameriprise Financial to create the New Retirement Mindscape study. "Baby boomers are comfortable with reinvention and will transform this time in their lives as they have everything else they have touched - from college to marriage to careers to parenting."

The study revealed five distinct stages of retirement: Imagination (15 to six years prior to retirement), Anticipation (five years prior to retirement), Liberation (Retirement Day and the year following), Reorientation (two to 15 years after retirement) and Reconciliation (16 or more years after retirement).

The Empowered Reinventors come to light in the Reorientation stage. This stage is a turning point for retirees when the thrill of retirement passes and concerns can grow about retirement preparedness and insufficient savings. The study identified four different groups within this stage that are defined by the way they cope with this stage of retirement: Empowered Reinventors (19 percent), Leisure Lifers (19 percent), Uncertain Searchers (22 percent) and Worried Strugglers (40 percent).

What makes Empowered Reinventors stand out from the other groups is that they typically prepared more from a financial and lifestyle perspective than others in Reorientation and most report a greater emotional fulfillment in their retirement years. In fact, the study shows that twice as many had a written financial plan than other retirees. It may be because of their proactive approach that Empowered Reinventors report one of the most rewarding retirement experiences with 92 percent saying they "enjoy retirement a great deal." Seventy percent view retirement as a time for new adventure and 56 percent cite it as a time of empowerment.

"The Empowered Reinventors are the trendsetters of a new boomer retirement model. They are adventurous and active, usually engaged in meaningful work and often cycling between periods of work and leisure," said Dychtwald. "They have the highest levels of fulfillment, planning, preparation and wealth."

Empowered Reinventors demonstrate that planning and preparation for retirement can and does give people the power to reinvent themselves and overcome unexpected obstacles. Almost half of the Reinventors believe in multiple retirements and a majority of them assert that they are on track with their retirement and believe their retirement has worked out just as they planned.

For more information on the Ameriprise Financial New Retirement Mindscape study, please visit ameriprise.com.

Financial advisory services and investments offered through Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA & SIPC, an Ameriprise Financial company.