Strategically Navigating Retirement: A Legal Professional’s Blueprint for Success

As a legal professional, you’ve dedicated years to building a successful practice, but have you given the same meticulous attention to your retirement plans? It’s not just about financial security—it’s about creating a fulfilling life after the courtroom battles and client meetings cease. In Episode 43 of The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast, esteemed retirement and transition coach Denise Henry sits down with host Darren Wurz to deliver an essential masterclass for law firm owners poised to make their transition from the legal landscape to retirement.

Episode 43 brings a thought-provoking discourse on the transition into retirement specifically tailored for individuals who’ve built a legacy in the legal field. Host Darren Wurz and guest Denise Henry explore the complex emotional and psychological landscape that legal professionals encounter as they shift from long-term careers to redefining their purpose and identity post-retirement.

Listeners will learn to:

1. Identify new opportunities for personal and professional growth beyond their legal practice, such as coaching or consulting, leveraging their wealth of experience.

2. Tackle the challenge of social isolation by cultivating new communities and reimagining their social circles post-retirement.

3. Formulate a comprehensive lifestyle plan that integrates their retirement vision with practical financial strategies and life arrangements.

4. Approach the shift to retirement proactively by embracing early planning for a seamless adjustment to major life changes.

5. Handle the inevitable transition phase with grace, understanding that reinvention is a process, and welcoming the profound transformation that follows.

Are you nearing retirement and looking for inspiration on how to redefine this new stage of your life with purpose and vibrancy? In episode 43 of The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast, our esteemed host Darren Wurz sits down with certified retirement and transition coach, Denise Henry, to guide you through turning the page to your ‘second act’ with confidence and excitement.

Transcending the Traditional Retirement Mindset

Retirement isn’t the final curtain call—it’s an intermission before the next, thrilling act of your life journey. Denise Henry, with her wealth of experience as an executive and retirement coach, reveals how retirement is an excellent opportunity to tap into latent talents and explore entrepreneurial ventures, like coaching, consulting, or channeling your career expertise into a new, fulfilling business.

Combatting Social Isolation in Your Golden Years

A pressing issue that retirees face is the threat of social isolation. Denise sheds light on the importance of community engagement and intergenerational interaction, offering actionable advice for retirees. She advocates for activities such as pickleball and suggests considering vibrant, multidimensional living communities to cultivate social ties that enrich this life stage.

Navigating the ‘Messy Middle’ of Life’s Transitions

Life’s inevitable transitions—from midlife changes to empty nesting or even embracing grandparenthood—are like the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Denise encourages embracing the ‘messy middle’ of these periods with grace and self-discovery. Through her client anecdotes, she reinforces the power of coaching to help individuals unearth their own solutions to navigate relationship dynamics and personal growth during retirement.

Envisioning the Future: Early Engagement with Retirement Planning

Beginning the retirement planning process early can significantly ease the transition. Denise underlines the importance of lifestyle planning that goes beyond finances—a comprehensive vision that also encompasses activities and living arrangements tailored to your personal vision for the future.

Financial Reflections with Host Darren Wurz

Darren Wurz complements the discussion by emphasizing how retirement goals shape financial strategies. He prompts listeners to reflect on the diverse possibilities that retirement offers, reminding us that financial planning is as dynamic as the retirement lifestyle it supports.

Redefining Wealth: Denise Henry’s ‘Millionaire Motivation

Denise Henry shares her personal ‘millionaire motivation’—not a pursuit of material wealth, but the priceless fulfillment of witnessing clients reach their “aha” moments. This sentiment propels the discourse to consider how wealth is defined not just by finances, but by experiences and contributions in this phase of life.

Striking Balance for a Worthy Retirement

The pursuit of balance across all facets of life—financial stability, health, mental well-being, relationships, and social engagements—is a cornerstone of Denise’s coaching. She invites listeners to reassess and recalibrate any unsatisfactory elements, championing a holistic approach to achieving personal satisfaction.

Connect with Denise Henry

For those inspired to dive deeper into retirement and transition coaching, Denise Henry’s contact information is provided, allowing listeners to embark on crafting their unique retirement narratives.

Join the Journey with The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast

In closing, Darren Wurz urges the audience to continue their financial and personal development by subscribing to the podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes, brimming with insights tailored for the prospective lawyer millionaire looking to flourish in their upcoming retirement.

For more transformative conversations and expert financial advice, be sure to subscribe to *The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast* and visit our website. Join the community of legal professionals who are navigating their retirement journey with panache and preparedness, and let’s script your remarkable second act together!

Resources:

Wurz Financial Services

Connect with Darren Wurz:

Connect with Denise Henry:

Email: denise@denisehenry.com
Linkedin: Denise Henry
Twitter: Denise Henry
Website: Denise Henry

About our guest:

Denise Henry is the founder of Summit Coaching & Consulting, Inc., an organization dedicated to assisting individuals in crafting successful pre-retirement transitions and providing invaluable support for retirees navigating the multifaceted challenges of this life phase.

With a distinguished reputation for her empathetic yet candid coaching approach,

Denise has empowered and mentored countless executives and leaders since 2003. Whether engaging in personalized one-on-one sessions or leading group coaching, her unwavering commitment lies in helping individuals attain a clearer vision for their retirement journey. Her exceptional capacity to establish trust swiftly and her collaborative coaching style cultivate an environment where individuals feel encouraged to express their authentic selves, thereby embarking on a purposeful retirement with newfound confidence.

Denise boasts certification as a retirement coach and holds an MBA from the University of Dallas, underscoring her expertise in facilitating successful transitions. She is in high demand as a facilitator and speaker for corporate engagements and community events.

Denise firmly believes that everyone deserves the keys to unlocking the mysteries of retirement.

Transcript:

Darren Wurz [00:00:00]:
Are you curious about shaping an invigorating retirement journey? Retirement is often thought of as a golden phase in one’s life, but for many, the transition involves a mix of excitement and uncertainty. Our guest today helps individuals embrace this new chapter with confidence. Hello, and welcome back to the Lawyer Millionaire podcast, where we delve into topics that matter most to law firm owners like you. I’m your host, Darren Wurz, dedicated to guiding you through your financial journey. And I apologize to our guest today. I’m dealing with a cold and so my voice is unusually deep today. Anyway, today our special guest is Denise Henry. Denise is a certified retirement and transition coach, and she specializes in helping individuals approach retirement with confidence and enthusiasm from the non financial side, which is fascinating. And in this episode, we’re going to dive into all of that and talk about what all that means. Denise, welcome to the show.

Denise Henry [00:01:05]:
Hey, how are you, Darren?

Darren Wurz [00:01:07]:
Well, you know how I am. I’m sipping tea here and hoping my voice makes it to the end. But let’s talk about you. And you do something very fascinating and interesting. I’m curious. Tell us about your background and what led you to becoming a retirement and transition coach.

Denise Henry [00:01:31]:
Wow, that’s a great question. Do you know that we all have our careers in the first half of life, and I had a career in corporate America working in the financial industry, actually. And as I was in my forty s, I thought, you know, there’s something else that’s calling me. And I became an executive coach working with corporate clients. And I did that for almost 20 years until one day I realized that I had something calling for me to do something else. I walked into the house and I’ll never forget that day when I told my husband, I think I’m done. And I had to, what am I going to do next? I was taking care of my parents, and I had a teenager that was moving on to college. And I said, you know what? I’ve got to figure out something new and different. So my story goes where I actually retired in the worst of ways. And that is I just came out and said, I’m done. And I didn’t really have a plan. So because of that, I learned a lot about what it would take to come up with that smooth transition for people, other people, because I experienced it first. So with that help of other coaches that were my friends and colleagues, I was able to figure out how to do that transition. And I thought for myself, maybe I should share this with other people.

Darren Wurz [00:03:12]:
Yeah. So you made all the mistakes so that everyone you could then teach others what not to do. That’s interesting. I mean, you must have really wanted to get out and do something different, to just kind of leap blindly into the abyss there. What was that like?

Denise Henry [00:03:34]:
Well, it was scary, I can tell you that. And it was also very lonely because everybody else was still working, everybody else was still carrying on with the lives that they had, and I had to figure out what I was going to do that had meaning as opposed to sitting around and watching tv like some people do when they retire. That wasn’t for me. So I was able to mud within them, right?

Darren Wurz [00:04:05]:
Absolutely. Now, what does this mean, being a retirement and transition coach? What does your work look like now? And just kind of briefly an overview of what you’re doing with your clients and the process that you’re kind of taking them through.

Denise Henry [00:04:23]:
So what we do is I get to know my clients and I help them get to know themselves better. And I think that’s the biggest solution for having the transition that we need to take in life is because we have to figure out what’s important to us, what our values are, and how we want to have the end of life. Look in the rear view mirror. So that’s where we come up with ways in which to pull that out of each one of my clients, who are individuals and unique in their own way, based upon their own life story. So I actually help them create a new story, rewrite the new story for the life that they want to live.

Darren Wurz [00:05:10]:
So you mean people don’t just automatically know these things about themselves? It takes the assistance of a third party. Tell us about that. Is that a real thing? We need that counseling. How are you able to kind of pull that out of people, help them discover what are their true desires and passions and values, and why don’t we know that automatically? What is there? What’s happening?

Denise Henry [00:05:38]:
So the truth is, we’re habitual human beings. We do things the same way all the time. Driving to work every day, you might take the same path. But the thing is, sometimes when life throws us a curveball or we choose to do something different, we have to figure out what needs to be different. There’s plenty of books out there that people can read to learn information, and there’s programs and there’s workshops and there’s friends, friends that have gone through this process before. But sometimes even me who read, I read lots of books. Sometimes it doesn’t sink into what is right for me, what my answer is. And so I help people dig deeper and find their own true answers to who they are and what they want to do.

Darren Wurz [00:06:30]:
Yeah, I agree with you there. I think it’s really difficult to identify some of those things all on our own. There are so many distractions. There’s so many directions that we think we should go in. So I’m glad that you are able to help people through this process, because a lot of people need this help. I see it all the time in retirement planning. I think a lot of folks are afraid of retirement because they don’t have a vision for what that looks like, and maybe retirement is not something they’re really looking forward to. For that reason, I want to ask you about some of the common struggles people face when they first enter retirement. Can you tell us about that?

Denise Henry [00:07:15]:
Absolutely. Well, with your help, I know that people have their financial situation in place, and that’s usually the biggest struggle for the common person that moves into retirement is what is my finances going to look like, and am I prepared with that? But even with the financial plan, I say that there’s a lot of other elements that make up retirement. Retirement is not like what it used to be. People used to retire, and that meant relax and kick back. People today are living longer and have more interest in things like health and well being. And so with that said, the activities might need to be different in order for them to choose what it will mean for them to have that meaningful and purposeful life that they really want to have. So I absolutely help them through that process of designing what they want it to look like.

Darren Wurz [00:08:21]:
Yeah, it’s a difficult thing to really identify those aspects. Why are some of the more deep reasons that people are afraid of retirement or that it’s such a difficult transition?

Denise Henry [00:08:40]:
Well, I’m sure that you’ll know that this makes sense, but the number one struggle that a lot of people have, especially when they’re successful in life with their career, is that they have an identity crisis. And that just means that I believe that I am who my role is in life. I was a coach. I was an executive coach. I worked with amazing people. What do I do when I sit at home? And I don’t do that anymore. So who am I? That’s one of the biggest struggles that people face.

Darren Wurz [00:09:19]:
Go ahead.

Denise Henry [00:09:21]:
Some of my clients have realized that they are not exactly what their role is, but some of their strengths that they used in that role can still be used in the rest of their life.

Darren Wurz [00:09:35]:
Oh, interesting. Yeah, I think that’s very true for law firm owners. It’s true for lawyers in general. But especially if you own a practice and your name is on the practice. I mean, this is part of who you are. It’s your identity. And letting go of that can be very challenging. Of course, there are some people that, the strange ones, that it’s no problem at all. They’re like, I want to retire early. Get me out of here. Yeah. And you mentioned they’re kind of retooling and using your talents and your skills in kind of another way. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Denise Henry [00:10:15]:
So there’s this beautiful book called from strength to strength that was written by Arthur Brooks. I’m looking at it on the floor. And so what he describes is that we have some amazing strengths that we use in the first half of our lives. But we’ll notice that as we get older and more mature, that those strengths change a little bit. But we can transform what our inborn strengths and talents are into a new place as we get older. And maybe some of our cognitive abilities are decreasing, maybe some of our physical abilities are decreasing. But the different strengths that we have as we get older, we want to utilize that. We want to embrace them. And the thing is being able to recognize what’s changing and how I want to have my life look with those different streets going forward.

Darren Wurz [00:11:14]:
Yeah, I have seen this with some folks in the legal profession where maybe they’ve been a law firm owner for some time, and then they’re kind of transitioning into being a coach or being a consultant for other law firm owners or maybe starting a business that supports the legal industry somehow. That can be a great way to kind of phase into retirement in kind of a different way. Maybe not retirement in the traditional sense, but as you mentioned, your second act or your second half. Yeah, very cool stuff.

Denise Henry [00:11:51]:
And then another struggle that I think people really struggle with. One of the largest ones is social isolation. I’m used to going to a law office every day and seeing the people that work with me, and I know the judges or whatever their life looks like, but when they retire, they don’t have that pattern. They don’t have those activities. So we’ve got to figure out how to replace and not be socially isolated, replace the people in our lives or make sure that you make an effort to build new relationships with people.

Darren Wurz [00:12:32]:
What are some ways that we can do that that you’ve noticed or have been successful with some of the people you’ve worked with?

Denise Henry [00:12:40]:
Absolutely. So it’s about community, too. So finding that right community is important. I have an amazing client that left his position and was at home a lot, and he said, you know what? I want to do something fun. So we started playing pickleball, and then the people that he was playing pickleball with became his friends, and then it opened up opportunities for him to do some consulting and mentoring for the people in his industry. So really it’s just having a direction to start off with to find those people. And maybe sometimes it takes making a choice about where you live, because where you live has a huge impact on where your friends and social connections are and who you want to be connected to.

Darren Wurz [00:13:36]:
Yeah, pickleball. I’m glad you mentioned that one. I actually started playing pickleball with my mom, and that’s been a lot of fun. Of course, I’m not very good at it yet. I get schooled all the time. We both did. We’ll play together and it’s a great activity and we’ve done it. And there’s a whole group of people and they all know each other. That’s a great idea. It’s a great way you could kind of get out there in the community and meet some folks.

Denise Henry [00:14:06]:
Right. And of course, you know that one of the biggest industries that is up and coming is the 55 plus communities where they actually all move and live with each other. And they’re now building communities where that it’s multidimensional, so it’s not only places for an older couple or person, but they also have young families there, too, so they can intermingle with each other in common areas. So it’s really cool.

Darren Wurz [00:14:38]:
Yeah. Fascinating. Now, I’m curious. Do you have a story you can tell us of someone you’ve worked with, obviously protecting their anonymity, but what’s your greatest success story of someone who was coming close to retirement, confused, not having any idea how to think about it and approach it. And how did you help them and what was the outcome in that?

Denise Henry [00:15:03]:
Okay, so I think immediately one of my clients was still working, and she was afraid of retirement for many reasons. But one of her biggest concerns was, I’m going to be at home with my husband all day long. What am I going to do? Sometimes it is about relationship, and it’s about making sure that where you’re going to, where you’re transitioning to is also equally as enjoyable and fun. And so there’s ways in which to prepare your relationship for things coming up in the future, which is what she did. She actually made a conscious choice to work on her relationship before she actually decided to retire because that was her biggest concern. But how did I help her? We talked through. What was the problem? What was the concern that she had? Where could she find the support or the answers that she was looking for? Sometimes a coach asks a lot of questions, and we don’t really give advice. And that’s what’s so beautiful about coaching, is that I’m asking people what’s important to them, not telling them what’s important. Based upon my life, they come up with their own answers.

Darren Wurz [00:16:24]:
Yeah, you’re just kind of guiding them through that process of discovering and digging deep. Now, Denise, as you’ve been working with people on their retirement vision, how has your concept of retirement changed? Or what big things have you learned in working with people?

Denise Henry [00:16:48]:
Oh, my goodness. What I’ve learned is that so many struggle in privacy, we don’t really talk about it. We take this struggle and we’re either embarrassed or ashamed of what we’re going through, because this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of our lives, and people find themselves frustrated and wishing that they were back at work. So there are times when people do need to go back and find something else to do, but it might not be where they came from. So helping people decide what’s next and what’s the logical path, so that what they want to accomplish is all part of the activities that they do.

Darren Wurz [00:17:39]:
Yeah, that sounds great. Now, are there other transitions that people struggle with other than retirement? Like perhaps somewhere else? Midlife. We hear often about the midlife crisis. Do you help people through other types of transitions? Tell us a little bit about that.

Denise Henry [00:18:01]:
So transitions can be many things, especially at this time in life, whether it be a 50 year old or a 70 year old. So 50 year olds go through empty nesting or not having their children around or then having grandchildren as opposed to children. So there’s a lot of changes that happen in families. But transitions are one of the mistakes that people make when they go through retirement is not thinking of it as, I’ve got to let something go in order to get to where I want to go. So a transition is not like a change because transition means that I’m moving from a place and not going back. Sort of like the story of a butterfly. The butterfly goes through the process of changing their bodies and reforming themselves, and then they become a flying animal as opposed to a crawling animal, but they’re never going to go back. Same thing with us. I want to help people go through that. Letting go and the messy middle is the challenge. In the messy middle, we don’t have the answers. It’s the unknown. But the funny thing about the unknown is we all live with that every day of our lives. We just don’t realize how much we are not aware of all of the uncertainties in life. This time of life just brings it up so clearly that I’ve got so many unknown.

Darren Wurz [00:19:42]:
Yeah, that’s a great point. We go through these moments in life. Retirement is probably one of the biggest ones where we’re questioning who are we and what are we really doing here? These kind of questions are important to ask anytime, not just at retirement, but as we go throughout life’s journey. I think what’s kind of the ideal time frame when someone needs to start, maybe engaging with someone like you to start thinking about what they want to do in retirement?

Denise Henry [00:20:20]:
That’s a great question. Sometimes people wait till after they retire, and that might be what they don’t have to do. That’s what I would like to propose, that people think through this lifestyle plan before they actually go to retirement. How beneficial would it be in even making a financial plan to know where I want to end up, what activities do I want to be? You know, do I want to move to Italy or do I want to move to the condo down the street? I don’t know. So it makes a huge difference with the lifestyle plan first, and then you can know exactly what the requirements will be for finances.

Darren Wurz [00:21:11]:
Denise, I’m so glad you mentioned that because that is so integral to the work I do with clients. We probably don’t do nearly the extent of the work that you do, but we definitely begin with asking some of those questions. What do you want your life to look like in retirement, and where is all of this heading? Because that really does, it informs how much money you’re going to be spending. If I want to retire to a villa in France, I’m going to need a lot more money, perhaps, than if I’m just going to go to a cabin in the woods somewhere and live off the land. You know what I mean? There’s a whole variety of things. And this is what I find so exciting and thrilling about retirement is there are so many options.

Denise Henry [00:21:59]:
There are. And I love to give people permission to dream. Dream outside of the box. Think of things that maybe you’ve never thought of before, because if they had thought of this before, they would have a clear path. But now we’re stuck. And so when you get stuck, in order to get unstuck, it really means I need to gather more information by being curious, being more creative, thinking about what’s possible. So I help people with creating stories, understanding where their story is right now, we all live by the stories that we’re telling ourselves every minute of every day. But now with the story, we understand what your story is right now, and we question and we get curious about what is possible.

Darren Wurz [00:22:52]:
Yeah. And it’s so important to sit back and take a moment to reflect on those things because I think we get so often so tied up in our work and so busy, we forget to actually sit back and think, what is all of this really for? What am I doing all of this for? Where is this heading? And that sort of thing? You were lucky and that you had kind of an aha moment where you’re like, okay, something needs to change here, but some people may not have that. So hopefully this is a good reminder for anyone who’s listening to kind of take stock and reevaluate and think, what do I really want out of life? Yeah. Retirement has changed so much. People were not really having these conversations, I don’t think, to this level. Maybe 50 years ago. Maybe you agree with that. Where is retirement heading in the future? Where is all of this going? What are some of the trends that you see, and where will we be in terms of retirement planning 50 years from now?

Denise Henry [00:24:06]:
Wow. Okay. So here’s a good trend, is that I do believe that people, as they’re moving to retirement, they’re looking for something more purposeful to be doing with the rest of their lives. I think before it’s more acceptable to be laid back and not be doing anything other than my honeydew list. And that sometimes gets old. But we’ve been moving towards a group of people, many people, that are finding ways that they can make a difference in other people’s lives. And that that’s how, when we focus on something that’s doing, that I’m going to do that’s meaningful for making a difference in the world. That makes calling towards this time even better.

Darren Wurz [00:25:00]:
Wow. I love that. Thinking about how you can make a difference in other people’s lives, that’s very motivational. I have one more question for you, Denise. I’ve changed up this question. I used to ask all my guests what their ideal retirement vision is, and I’m changing it. The question is, now, what is your millionaire motivation? Because the name of the podcast is the lawyer millionaire. And what I mean by that is, what are your bigger life purposes that you are working towards, and where do you see yourself going?

Denise Henry [00:25:38]:
No, it’s interesting because I’m not looking to become a millionaire again. I’ve already done that, been there so my joy in life is to see the aha on somebody’s face. And to me, that’s worth a million dollars. It gives me chill bucks to think about how when people realize that gaining rewards and money and accolades and all of that stuff was great at the beginning or at the first half of our lives. Now let’s do it in a different way that makes us feel really good about who we are and what we’re actually doing. So that’s my.

Darren Wurz [00:26:21]:
It. I love it. Great stuff. Well, Denise, any other practical tips or what’s a big key idea that you really want our listeners to take away from today’s episode?

Denise Henry [00:26:34]:
What I always start with is having people look at all of the different areas of your life. So I work with what we call the wheel of life, which includes about ten different areas. So finances is one of them. But there’s other areas that I think it’s important for people to look through, and that is what is your health? What do you need to do with your body in order to be as strong as you choose to be? What kind of support do you need in that? And what plans do you have for doing that? Our mental health is also really important and that comes from how do we feel about what we’re doing and our relationships and things like that. So that’s another part of the wheel of life that’s really important. Romance and social activities, all of those things need to be considered in order to have this balanced life. So as you can imagine, if on the wheel you’ve got areas that are not quite as where you’d like them to be in your level of satisfaction, then I’d help people say, well, what are we going to do about that? What’s your choice about that? And so we look at the wheel and all of the different areas of alignment. I say look at these and decide which one is important for you to work on. Now, which one is it that you’re satisfied with? And I’m putting the big check.

Darren Wurz [00:28:02]:
Yeah, great advice. Life is short and we should be living. If something is area of our life is not how we want it to be, we should make a change. Thank you so much, Denise, for sharing all of this wisdom with us. If people want to learn more about you, where can they go?

Denise Henry [00:28:24]:
Well, so my name is Denise Henry and my website is denisehenry.com. And my email address is denise@denisehenry.com. It’s pretty simple.

Darren Wurz [00:28:37]:
I love it. I love it. Makes it easy. Fantastic. Well, thanks again and thank you, the listener, for joining us. That brings us, unfortunately, to the end of another exciting episode. I hope you’ve learned a lot today. I certainly have. And before we say goodbye, I want to remind you to please follow and subscribe to our podcast so you won’t miss another compelling episode like this one. Your feedback drives us, so please leave a review if you enjoyed today’s show, it truly does help. Now that you have some great tips and insights from Denise, feel free to continue your financial learning journey. We invite you to visit our website, thelawyermillionaire.com, where you’ll find a wealth of resources designed to help you craft your financial future. Thank you for joining us on the Lawyer Millionaire podcast. Remember, in matters of wealth and retirement, by taking the right steps today, you can create the tomorrow you want. I’m your host, Darren Wurz, and I look forward to seeing you next time.