Voya Cares launches series: what employment extenders need to know, but no one is telling them

On the surface, the question, “How does one work past traditional retirement age?” seems like it has an obvious answer: Just don’t retire. But as more and more workers in the U.S. continue to work through their 65th birthday and beyond, they are finding that they just aren’t prepared for a system that has been geared toward encouraging them to retire. 

With often thinly-veiled agism in the workplace and the potential ramifications of disclosing one’s age, many workers do not “advertise” how old they are, so they silently try to work out the details by themselves behind the scenes, leading to a good deal of trial and error — and maybe more error than can be tolerated so close to their actual retirement.

Since publishing Voya Cares’ research on employment extenders early last year, we’ve been hearing anecdotally about the decision points that are taking workers who are turning 65 and up by surprise and the lack of information and preparation available to help navigate them.

Gathering all of the information needed to help prepare employment extenders to work past age 65 — while managing decisions around Social Security retirement, Medicare, estate and end-of-life planning, and required minimum distributions from retirement plans, to name a few — is challenging. And their employers can find the situation just as challenging. 

Considering that May is Older Americans Month, Voya Cares is launching a curated series of articles to help employment extenders navigate their employment beyond age 65, exploring considerations that need to be taken into account beginning at age 62 and extending beyond the 65th birthday, including:

Age 55 or before

Family communications: Letter of guidance and instruction on medical care wishes, inheritance, last wishes.

Age 62

Social Security key retirement considerations: Defining Full Retirement Age and when to access benefits, beginning at age 62. 

Age 65

Medicare versus employer-provided health care: Becoming familiar with Medicare and determining whether to take coverage or keep employer coverage.

Full Social Security Retirement age ~68 

Caregiving and long-term care needs: Projecting (and some pre-paying), taking into consideration desired living/housing arrangements.

Age 73

Required Minimum Distributions (RMD): Distribution options, taxation considerations and RMD Charitable gifting.

Stay tuned in subsequent months to learn more about and better prepare for the multiple and far reaching decisions that employment extenders will need to make, as they work past their traditional retirement age.

Refer to Voya Cares’ research paper, Employment Extenders: A (labor)force to be reckoned with, to learn more about how employers can support and retain their employees who are working past typical retirement age.