The Great Retirement Study

Our latest Collaborative Study has delved into the attitudes and behaviours of the 55-75-year-old cohort through a three-month programme of qualitative and quantitative work.

Our research objectives

We aimed to delve further into the lives of the ‘at-retirement-age’ cohort, who in 2018 we found to be underfunded, underwhelmed and under-risked when it came to pension pots. Our research focused on those with decisions to make/choices in their finances.

Hypotheses:

The majority can no longer rely entirely on a secured income through retirement (although there are those with some) and need to look beyond pensions
Many have expectations of a retirement lifestyle often beyond their financial capacity
Others face the challenge of transferring wealth to the next generation often driven by strong personal values of what is the right thing to do
They are ill-equipped to deal with the ongoing financial decisions and trade-offs required through this 20-30-year period, to end of life
They still do not trust and are not engaged with those able to support
They are an increasingly diverse group of individuals and one size does not fit all.

Our findings

Our 30-page insight report offers you an in-depth look at our findings, and the six-persona segmentation output. Chapters include:

What is Retirement – what are people looking forward to or most concerned about?
The Changing World of Work – how retirement is a process and not an event
Financial Preparedness – people’s unrealistic financial expectations and the absence of planning
An Introduction to our Six Segments
Bridging the Gap – the demand and need for better advice.

Find out more about how the modern generation of retirees plan their transition from work and the finances they should have in place to support that.

Please get in touch (contactus@thewisdomcouncil.com) if you would like to purchase the report via invoice (£1,450 +VAT), or to find out more about what the report contains.

As well as the insight report, we can run a three-hour workshop with your firm. The workshop (£3,500+VAT) aims to present the findings to you, including more detail on the segmentation and give you an overview of how your business can use the findings to its advantage. Please get in touch to find out more.

Struggling to engage with a client base in this cohort?

Additionally to the qualitative and quantitative research findings, we have also undertaken a needs-based segmentation analysis.

The segmentation provides a framework for both manufacturers and distributors to develop effective and engaging value propositions for this valuable target market.

Our segments have been mapped and modelled and are accessible via interactive, real-time dashboards that can demonstrate a segment’s media, brand and influencer affinity.

We can map your customer book to the segments and tell you more about who they are, what is most likely to engage them, and where in the country they are based.

In partnership with

In-retirement poverty

As pensions have changed, thousands are left behind

In 2018 we conducted research on pensions, and found that a vast majority of customers were falling in to one or more of three categories:

Under risked – the fear of losing money outweighs the knowledge that they should be taking more risk.
Under funded – not enough in their pot and not facing up to the reality of what that means for their retirement.
Underwhelmed – a lack of engagement and generally being ‘turned off’ by pensions despite them approaching retirement age.

In 2022, we were almost certain that these challenges remained amongst consumers. With that in mind, we conducted fresh research on the topic, The Great Retirement.

Via qualitative and quantitative research, as well as social listening we have built a firm understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of the 55-75 year-old cohort.

Contact us

We draw on deep industry expertise, insight and our independent perspective to develop the tools you need to make savings and investments more accessible to all.

Get in touch to find out how, together, we can deliver financial products and services that your client wants and needs.