Today, Heather Hopkins (@heatherahopkins), Research Director for Platforum, revels in the afterglow of Platforum 2015 — and elaborates on the concept of “The Grey Glide”
Platforum 2015, our ninth annual conference, is behind us. As I sip my coffee (and gobble another paracetemol), I am filled with gratitude for our chairman, Peter Mann, our esteemed speakers, our wise sponsors , the amazing attendees and my colleagues at Centaur and Platforum.
Many fascinating themes emerged throughout the event that will be fodder for our future activities and will find their way into these weekly emails. Yet I want to use this moment to focus on a term I introduced in my opening remarks: “The Grey Glide”.
Parts of the pension industry are living in the past. The days of walking into your HR manager’s office, agreeing on a day to retire, accepting a gold watch and exiting the building are over. Rather, there is a “Grey Glide” – a period between full time work and retirement. Some people are still accumulating wealth; others are starting to dip into their nest-eggs. But they are still in the labour force.
The Grey Glide is emerging as an increasingly important phase of adult life. According to ONS data, as many as 12% of people worked beyond the state pension age in the final quarter of 2014. That is an increase of 25% since 2001. And the numbers are set to continue to rise.
Indeed, in a nationally representative survey Platforum conducted this summer we found that 27% of all working adults plan to work beyond the state retirement age. Our attitudes to life in retirement have changed. The likelihood that people want to work beyond age 65 increases with age, income and level of education. Among people aged 55-65, more than a third (35%) plan to stay on the payroll past the state retirement age.
We see the Grey Glide most starkly in the share of workers in part-time employment. In 2014, some 67% of workers over the state pension age were doing part-time work. This compares to 27% average for all working adults.
What is behind the rise of the silver-haired workaholics? In a series of in-depth interviews this summer with working adults who are also active investors, we asked the reasons people want to work beyond age 65.
The responses were fairly consistent: people enjoy it. We like the social interaction of the office and the intellectual stimulation of work. Some excerpts:
“Retire, and do what? I like golf but it just doesn’t have the same bite as business.”
“For me personally, I like working…. I work part time but I would like to work more days. I absolutely love it.”
As a new phase in our adult life, the Grey Glide and will become increasingly important as we look to transition from full-time work to retirement. This used to be the purview of the chairman of the board. But it will become very common. After all, B&Q famously targets those over 50 to staff its stores.
Importantly, the Grey Glide is crucial to the investment industry. The financial advice required in this phase is different from the advice needed during full-time work or in the period of retirement. Grey Gliders will continue to earn an income but will also be drawing on savings and investments so need to understand how to maximise tax efficiency. They need to consider the impact of working a few years longer than expected, downsizing, maximising pension contributions, and the like.
You will be hearing more from us on the Grey Glide in the coming months. Once we recover from yesterday’s conference, we will publish a paper that takes the concept forward.
In the meantime, we want to reach out to you. Please share any research you have done in the area, such as the attitudes to retirement, spending and investing trends or issues the Grey Gliders confront. We also welcome stories from those on the Grey Glide to understand how people have managed their finances to maximise efficiency in this phase.