For many people, retirement is something you dream about for a long time. You’ve probably spent many years planning for it in hopes of enjoying a more robust lifestyle during your golden years. No matter how long you’ve been looking forward to the day when you are finally able to hand over the reigns of your insurance business to someone else and walk into your beachy sunset unencumbered by worries over work and more there always seem to be a few unexpected things that happen during your retirement after the sale of an insurance agency.

Boredom Sets in – In a Really Big Way

There are only so many rounds of golf or Netflix binges you can handle before you start adding miracle grow to your grass, so you have something new to mow. Seriously, after working 50 plus weeks per year for the last 40 to 50 years of your life, you’ll find that it takes far less time than you’d imagine to grow incredibly bored with your daily post-retirement routine. There are things you can do to combat the boredom and shake things up a bit.

• Join a local hobby group. If you don’t have a hobby, now is the perfect time to choose one. Groups that meet weekly are best and you may need more than one to help keep you busy to the point you prefer.
• Volunteer. Volunteering gives you an opportunity to enjoy a change of scenery, meet new people, and do some good in your community.
• Travel. Whether you buy an RV and tour the country or join a travel club, now is the perfect time to explore all the corners of the world you’ve missed out on until now.
• Start another business. Retirement is not the end of your usefulness to the world. Start another business. In a totally new industry and let that sustain your time and attention throughout your golden years.

Lack of Purpose

After dedicating so many years to helping families and businesses get the insurance protection they need and recover from disasters large and small, you may experience a sharp lack of purpose after retiring. Again, you can turn to other pursuits, like starting a business of your own or volunteering to fill that need and provide direction in your post-retirement life.

Loss of Your Social Circle or Identity

Many people are heavily invested in their careers. People who own insurance agencies often have a fairly large social circle that involves other insurance professionals and the people who purchase your insurance products. You may feel like you’ve lost some of your best friends when you retire but that doesn’t have to be the case. Create new ways to socialize with familiar friends and faces while looking for opportunities to grow your social network through local organizations for retirees, civic organizations, your local church community, hobby groups, and more.

Whether you’re currently considering the sale of an insurance agency or anticipating retirement in the distant future, it’s never too early to begin making plans. Sukay & Associates can help.

The First Step

A Valuation. The Valuation of an Insurance Agency tells you more than just the price.

The valuation of an insurance agency isn’t just a figure; it can provide insight into the agency’s goals and help guide operating strategies in addition to its role in perpetuation planning. A lower-than-expected valuation may trigger the need to take certain financial actions. It could also highlight inherent risks in the agency such as an unwanted concentration.

The valuation of an insurance agency can prompt a sale that wasn’t planned, as well as stop a sale that’s already in progress. You may not realize how much value there is within your agency, or you may have overestimated it, but the only way to know for sure is to speak to a financial advisor and go through the valuation process.

Here at Sukay & Associates, we offer free valuations. As a firm, we believe in answering the question is our responsibility and the foundation of a great working relationship – even if that is in the future.