Most clients approaching retirement are measuring themselves against a number. The question they’re really asking is whether they’ve done enough. The number rarely answers it.
After two decades working with high-net-worth families, I’ve come to believe this is one of the most important conversations advisers can have with their clients right now.
What the benchmarks actually show
Using US data as a consistent global reference point, the picture is more nuanced than most clients expect. To be in the top 25% of retirees by net worth, including pensions, investments and property equity, you don’t need the $1.2 million figure that surveys routinely cite as the “magic number.” The threshold is considerably lower. Many clients who feel behind are already well inside the top quarter once all assets are counted.
The top 10% sits at around $2.9 million. The top 1% requires over $21 million.
But here’s what those numbers don’t tell you. Some of the most financially anxious people I’ve met have more than $3 million. And some of the most contented retirees have a fraction of that. The number and the feeling are not the same thing.
The research that should change the conversation
A US Federal Reserve survey found that the vast majority of retirees with between $50,000 and $100,000 in total savings reported being satisfied with their retirement. Not just coping. Satisfied. Because they’d adjusted their expectations to match their resources, and state benefits covered their essential needs.
Your clients aren’t in that situation. But the insight applies regardless of wealth level. Satisfaction doesn’t scale linearly with net worth. Arthur Brooks put it clearly: happiness often comes from narrowing the gap between what you want and what you have, not from endlessly increasing the latter.
I had a client who’d set himself a $10 million target. When we modelled his actual income needs across every scenario, including the worst ones, it turned out he’d already saved enough to support his family comfortably. The target wasn’t financial. It was emotional. It was about certainty. Once we showed him he already had that certainty, his entire approach to his wealth changed.
The statistic worth sharing with every client
A study by Harbison Company found that people who worked with a financial life manager were statistically happier across four areas: fulfillment, intention, impact and gratitude. This held true regardless of gender, income or wealth level. And the effect was most pronounced for those with over $1.2 million in assets, precisely because complexity increases at that level, and so does the emotional weight of every decision.
That’s not an argument for any particular service. It’s an argument for clarity. For having a plan that’s built around a life, not a number.
What to tell your clients
The most useful question to put to any client who’s fixated on a retirement target isn’t whether they’re on track to hit it. It’s whether they’ve actually defined what enough means for them personally. Not based on a survey average. Not based on what their peers have. Based on the life they want to live and what it genuinely costs.
Comparison is a trap, especially when it comes to wealth. There’s always a higher percentile. The clients who sleep well aren’t the ones who hit the biggest number. They’re the ones who stopped chasing one that didn’t belong to them.
Watch the full analysis here: https://youtu.be/DhpER9qLnhI?si=SBqa-stXjzTC-yQb
