How to Talk with Family About Retirement and Financial Plans

As retirement approaches, most people focus on the financial transition ahead—shifting from saving to spending, managing income, and planning for longevity. For many retirees, this transition can also coincide with shifting family roles and expectations. Yet, a common reality is that families often postpone important financial conversations until they’re forced by circumstance and often under stress.

In a recent Pew Research Center survey of adults ages 65 and older, about two-thirds said they had discussed burial preferences (68%) and medical care wishes (66%) with their adult children, and 61% had talked about what to do with their belongings after they die—but far fewer have covered broader financial planning topics.¹

This article outlines proactive ways to share your financial direction, decision-making approach, values and wisdom with family members before retirement, without oversharing or creating unnecessary tension. Through open communication, you can create understanding and alignment now, so your plans are clearer later.

How Your Financial Professional Can Support These Conversations

Conversations about money, legacy, and support preferences can be complex and emotional, especially when adult children have their own financial viewpoints or life stressors. That’s normal. Many people benefit from having a neutral, experienced resource to help guide these conversations.

A financial professional can help you:

• Help you communicate your retirement plan in a clear, family-friendly way
• Structure gifting or support strategies in a way that considers your long-term stability
• Review estate planning documents confirm beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, and health directives reflect your current intentions
• Prepare for and facilitate family meetings if you anticipate tricky questions, tension, or generational differences in perspective

When it comes to planning your transition to retirement, you have a lot to consider—and a lot to convey. These conversations don’t have to be handled alone. Working with your financial professional can help you communicate from a place of preparedness and confidence.

Discussing Your Retirement Plans With Adult Children

Adult children are often observant about outcomes (e.g., vacations or downsizing) but unclear about why certain decisions were made. While you don’t need to share every line item in your financial plan, you can explain your decision-making frameworks.

Financial and retirement planning topics worth addressing with your adult children often include:

• Your retirement lifestyle priorities, such as where you plan to live and how you want to spend your time
• How you plan to generate retirement income, without getting into line-item specifics (e.g., pension, Social Security, investments)
• How you’re preparing for health care costs, longevity, and inflation
• Any generosity or support you hope to provide, and the intentions behind it

Communicating your plans at a high level can help orient your family, reduce guesswork, and set realistic expectations. Framing your plan as something you’ve thought through can be reassuring and help loved ones make more informed decisions of their own.

Sharing the “Why” Behind Your Choices

Wisdom isn’t just the decisions you’ve made; it’s the reasoning behind them. Sharing the principles that guided your financial journey can be one of the greatest gifts you pass on.

Consider sharing:

• Why you prioritize long-term goals over short-term spending
• How you balance risk and safety in your investment choices
• Why you automate savings or plan early for inflation and health costs
• Lessons learned from unexpected challenges (e.g., life changes, market dips)

Explaining these patterns equips adult children to reflect on their own financial decisions with more context and intention. Discussing the reasoning behind your choices—both successes and missteps—helps normalize the idea that financial confidence and independence are built over time, not all at once.

Cover Estate Planning Basics Before They’re Needed

Having an estate plan is essential, but just as important is making sure the key pieces are accessible and understood by the people who may need to act on them.

At a high level, your family should know:

• Which documents exist, such as a will, trust, powers of attorney, and health care directives
• Where those documents are stored and who to contact if needed (e.g., attorney, executor, health care proxy, or agent)
• The reasoning behind your estate structure, including fairness, stewardship, or special considerations

Positioning this clarity as an act of forethought and care can help family members understand that preparation is a gift.

Modeling Open Financial Communication Across Generations

Financial communication doesn’t have to be a single sit-down event. In fact, families who maintain ongoing dialogue report smoother transitions during life events—from retirement to health changes to changes in household composition.

Ways to model and encourage openness include:

• Inviting and creating space for questions, without judgment
• Acknowledging that comfort levels may differ across generations
• Touching base regularly, rather than waiting for crises or large life events

Open financial communication can help build shared understanding and reduce assumptions that can lead to conflict.

Discussing Support, Generosity, and Boundaries Thoughtfully

Nearing retirement often raises questions about how to help adult children, grandchildren, or aging parents. While generosity is admirable, clarity and boundaries help protect everyone involved.

A constructive way to approach these conversations is to outline:

• What you feel comfortable supporting
• What are you not planning to support financially
• How future requests will be evaluated as circumstances change

A framework like this helps align expectations while supporting your retirement security, ultimately benefiting everyone’s long-term stability.

In practice, many families find this balance challenging. According to the Pew Research Center, 23% of U.S. adults are part of the “sandwich generation,” meaning they are simultaneously supporting an aging parent and a child, including providing financial help to adult children.² When support decisions aren’t discussed intentionally, they can expand gradually and compete with long-term retirement priorities. A thoughtful, proactive approach can help balance generosity with financial security. Your financial professional can help you evaluate how these goals fit into your overall retirement plan.

Making Your Wisdom Part of Your Legacy

Sharing your financial wisdom isn’t about transparency for transparency’s sake; it’s about preparing your family for the future you envision, with fewer surprises and more shared understanding.

Starting small—even with one intentional conversation—can open the door to deeper alignment over time. If you’re unsure where best to begin or how to frame these talks, consider reaching out to your financial professional. Together, you can align your retirement goals with the legacy you wish to share.

1) Pew Research Center, Experiences With Estate Planning and Discussing End-of-Life Preferences (2025).
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/11/06/experiences-with-estate-planning-and-discussing-end-of-life-preferences/
2) Pew Research Center, More than half of Americans in their 40s are “sandwiched” between an aging parent and their own children (April 8, 2022). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/08/more-than-half-of-americans-in-their-40s-are-sandwiched-between-an-aging-parent-and-their-own-children/

^{This material was developed and prepared by a third party for use by your Registered Representative. The opinions expressed and material provided are for general information and should not be considered a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. The content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information.}