Special Situations in Retirement Planning

Although a picture may paint a thousand words, even a book of illustrations could not hope to describe every possible scenario that may affect a person's retirement planning. If you have followed our discussion of retirement planning issues from the very start, you will probably be aware of the majority of issues and concerns involved in the retirement planning process. Unfortunately, one size does not fit all when a particular life event affects your retirement planning efforts.

When considering where to start the retirement planning process, we initially suggested that you ask yourselves some basic questions that start with who, what, when, where, why, and how. For example: How much money will you have for retirement? When can you retire? Who will share your retirement with you?

When a serious life event comes up, it usually affects every facet of your life, including your retirement planning. In dealing with the impact of a life event on your retirement planning efforts, you simply ask yourself the same types of basic retirement planning questions within the context of the life event. For example: How much money will you have for retirement after Event X? When can you retire after Event X? Who will share your retirement with you after Event X?

Each of us may have our own unique "Event X" to deal with. However, the following are the most common special situations that people may have to deal with during the retirement planning process:

• Divorce and Retirement Planning: A divorce touches virtually every aspect of a couple's lives and the lives of all those around them. After finding out what happens to your hard-earned retirement plan assets in the event of divorce, perhaps you will even change your mind and stay married.
• Protecting Retirement Assets: Assuming divorce is not an issue in your life, perhaps personal financial difficulties are making you concerned about your retirement savings. Find out what may happen to your retirement plan assets when creditors come a'knockin' at your door.
• Coordinating Retirement with Estate Planning: Are you starting to get the idea that once you save money for retirement, everybody tries to take it away from you? You should go with this feeling. If somebody doesn't manage to take it from you while you are alive, you will eventually be parted from your remaining retirement assets when you die. Although estate planning is a topic in and of itself, discover how retirement assets may be split up after you are gone.