The Retirement Timeline: A Powerful Tool To Help Clients Plan

Jon Summers

Published: Jul 31, 2025 8 min read Updated: Jul 31, 2025

As a financial professional, you know how easy it is for clients to delay retirement planning. The problem isn't always lack of awareness — it’s inertia. For many people, retirement planning doesn’t begin until it has to.

That’s where age-based retirement decision points become powerful tools to help your clients. And as a consultant who works with independent insurance agents and financial advisors nationwide, I want to show you how integrating these key retirement dates for clients into your process can drive more meaningful conversations, boost client loyalty, and open the door to new business.

For many people, retirement planning doesn’t begin until it has to.

The Power of the Retirement Timeline

One of the best retirement planning tools that top advisors use today is the retirement timeline. This simple visual guide helps clients see exactly where they are and what’s coming next. Whether it’s turning 65 and enrolling in Medicare, deciding when to claim Social Security, or planning for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) — clients are more likely to take action when they’re facing a concrete deadline.

How do you create a retirement timeline for clients? You don’t have to, because Senior Market Sales^® (SMS) already has done the work for you. And because top advisors already are using it with success, it’s proven to be one of the best retirement planning tools to engage clients.

Our timeline is considered especially effective when used as part of the turnkey, exclusive marketing system based around the concept of meeting clients where they are with these key retirement decisions. The timeline is the centerpiece of “Your Core Retirement Decisions,” SMS’ exclusive client-facing retirement planning guide, which is available for you to customize with your contact information. Advisors who use the system’s key decisions presentation as a lead-generator often offer a digital download or printed copy of the guide as an incentive to book an appointment, and those who do see extraordinary conversion rates.

But the retirement timeline also is effective as a standalone tool to educate clients. We’ve seen advisors frame the timeline and hang it in their lobbies, keep laminated handouts at their desk, send it digitally to prospects or clients or use it in meetings with them. It immediately anchors the conversation around what matters right now — and what’s coming next.

I keep a version of this timeline on my desk, and many advisors even frame it in their office. It’s not just a visual aid — it’s a conversation starter.

Get the Retirement Guide With Timeline

You Don’t Need to Be the Expert on Everything

You may wonder “why would I present a retirement guide when I specialize in only one part of retirement?” SMS, through recent research and our experience in the senior space, has identified the role of a retirement navigator as a key growth opportunity in the ever-changing retirement planning landscape. The SMS white paper, “The Retirement Planning Mind Shift: New Thinking for Growth in a New Era,” asserts that the most successful business models of the future will provide holistic in-house services or partnerships among professionals to serve all of a client’s health and wealth needs.

The Core guide and timeline are ideal tools to position you as a retirement navigator, clients’ first and central advisor, who then can connect clients to the right resources.

You don’t have to be an expert on every single topic covered in the guide and timeline. SMS is unique in the marketplace for its wide network of companies available for you to refer clients to. For example, if you don’t sell Medicare plans, refer to our partners at Medicare BackOffice^® to confidently guide your clients without taking your eye off your core business.

If you don’t already have trusted referral partners in areas such as long-term care insurance, travel insurance, financial wellness or holistic retirement planning, we can connect you. It’s one of the simplest ways to deliver more value and boost your income while freeing up your time. You really can help clients with all their retirement decisions when you partner with SMS.

We’re in the Middle of the Peak 65 Opportunity

This year, 2025, marks the largest number of Americans turning 65 — an average of 11,400 every single day.

While 2025 is the absolute peak of this demographic surge, the so-called “Peak 65” opportunity for advisors will continue for two years, with more than 4.1 million people turning 65 each year through 2027. And with new legislation like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and continued changes to RMD rules, your clients are looking for guidance — and expecting you to be informed.

The advisors we partner with already are using tools like the retirement timeline and our planning process to proactively engage clients, improve retention, and grow referrals. It’s not about selling products — it’s about guiding clients through decisions they have to make.