Page 16 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

14 at a glance

New retirement plan is to postpone the retirement

Perception of retirement is changing

Emrah Akın, KPMG Turkey Retail and Consumer Products
Leader, stated that those reasons, combined with a longer life
expectancy and the need for/wish to work for longer years,
introduced ‘unretirement’ as a new phase of life. Underlining
that working for long years should not be definitively regarded
as a bad thing, Emrah Akın added: “Some people may prefer
to remain within the workforce for long years just because
they want to. They are also worried that retirement equals to
boredom. On the other hand, some may prefer to have an en-
tertaining job rather than having to work during retirement.”
KPMG’s latest report, ‘Me, my life, my wallet’ research indi- ‘Unretirement’ is regarded as a ‘fulfillment’ concept that
cates that more and more people are postponing their retire- complements the need to fill time (give me something extra to
ment plans due to longer life expectancy and the need work fill my time) or budget (give me some extra income to help me
for a longer period of time. live the way I want to live). On the other hand, others regard
this as directly a thing to do in order to survive rather than
‘Me, my life, my wallet’, a new study by the international tax, a fulfillment activity. In many cases, consumers postpone or
audit and consultancy company KPMG, noted striking results even cancel their retirement plans to be able to afford their
about the perspective of today’s consumers regarding retire- rents, pay-off their mortgages, or simply, to keep their fridges
ment. Conducted with 25 thousand consumers living in the full.
UK, USA, United Arab Emirates, France, Brazil, Canada,
and China; the survey indicates that ‘unretirement’ is the new The research reveals that a major part of the Baby Boomers
form of retirement for today’s environment where the popu- has the potential to deny the retirement approaches of the ‘Si-
lation is getting older and average life expectancy continues lent-Generation’ including social communities in sunny places
to increase. where retirees play games with other retirees and a relaxed
way of living. In addition to being more active and multi-di-
Approximately 27 percent of the survey participants showed mensional, this generation is known to stay away from the
a highly worried attitude when asked about their pension. The experience of what retirees do or should do.
survey proved that this attitude changed only slightly in differ-
ent groups of income. 25 percent of the Generation X, who are Companies should be prepared
10 to 20 years away from retirement state that they have not
started to save for their retirement yet; while only 30 percent The conclusion of the research states that companies should
of them believe that they will be financially safe enough to change their perspective of the 5 following elements so that
retire in the coming years. they can be prepared to face the ‘uncertain’ future to be creat-
ed by consumers who are postponing their retirements:
According to the survey, there are 6 main reasons withholding
consumers from retiring: • Integrity of customers’ budgets
• Mutual relation between today’s consumption and future
• Insufficient savings to fund them during retirement planning
• Postponed plans for the future • How consumption models change during those life phases
• The fear of running out of money and what are the new unmet customer needs
• The challenge of paying off their debts • Dependency between generations and how the financial sta-
• Extension of financial support between generations tus of one group impacts another
• Need to earn more during the phase following their working • A chance to take active role in helping customers make bet-
life ter plans