NARRATIVE-BASED RETIREMENT PREPARATION

Story-Ready Retirement

A narrative approach to retirement readiness

Retirement is the last chapter in your money story.

The facts about story-based retirement preparation:

of employees rated financially ready for retirement.

Financial Planning Association, 2025

of employees rated emotionally ready for retirement.

Financial Planning Association, 2025

of retirees regret not having clear retirement goals ready for retirement.

TIAA, 2026

That gap — between financial readiness and personal clarity — is a story problem. And story problems require story solutions.

OVERVIEW

This retirement readiness program helps you examine your relationship with money to make better financial decisions. It is offered in three modalities which address the layers beneath the financial plan — the beliefs, behaviors, and narratives that determine whether a financially ready employee actually retires with confidence, clarity, and intention.

THE APPROACH

Participants examine the money beliefs they inherited in childhood, trace how those beliefs shaped their adult financial behaviors, and develop language to communicate more clearly with advisors, and transition into retirement with greater confidence and intentionality.

TARGET

Organizations and large employers with established financial wellness and retirement programs who want to add genuine depth to their benefits offering. This includes financial services firms looking to deepen client relationships, federal agencies supporting employees through FERS and TSP transitions, and other entities seeking online or in person offerings.

An individual who is somewhere between 5 and 15 years from retirement or someone who is not working with a financial advisor and is navigating their retirement decisions alone.

Three ways to bring narrative-based retirement preparation to your organization

LIVE INTERACTIVE WEBINAR

Modality: Webinar

Format: Live online

Duration: 90 minutes

Attendance: Up to 100 participants

HALF-DAY WORKSHOP

Modality: Workshop

Format: Onsite at your organization

Duration: 3.5 hours

Attendance: Up to 35 participants

SELF-PACED COURSE

Format: Course

Format: Self-Paced

Duration: 60 minutes

Attendance: Individual

BENEFITS OF THE PROGRAM

  • No financial disclosure is ever required, removing the biggest barrier to engagement in financial wellness programming.

  • Participants arrive at their next financial conversation better prepared — making every advisor, counselor, and planning resource more effective.

  • It reaches employees who would never self-identify as needing retirement support, because it is framed as an investigation, not an intervention.

  • Every participant leaves with a practical decision-making tools designed to produce post-workshop reflection and analysis.

  • A retirement readiness program that does not replace financial planning, but makes it more effective.

  • Research-based data providing evidence for story-based retirement preparation.