Ingram's July 2026

THE 100-YEAR LIFE Today’s retirement was designed for a different century. What does that mean for those still working and those who aren’t? For most of human history, retirement didnotexist.Peopleworkeduntiltheycouldn’t. The modern concept of retirement emerged after life expectancy increased and pension systems became widespre- ad. Even then, the model was remarkably simple: Education. Career. Retirement. Three stages, one sequence. And one ending. The problem today is that the model we’ve long understood and accepted was built for a world that no longer exists. Today, people routinely live decades lon ger than previous generations. A person reaching age 65 (or even today’s Social Security-eligibility figure 67) can reason ably expect another 20 years or more of life, and many will live considerably longer. That reality is quietly transforming how Americans think about work, money and purpose. The traditional retirement model assumed a relatively short final chapter, but the emerging model may require an entirely different book. When Thirty Years Becomes Normal Look at the numbers: Imagine gradu ating from college, retiring at 65, living to 95. That produces a retirement nearly as long as the entire career that preceded it. For financial planners, that cre ates obvious challenges. For individu als, it creates something even more significant: a need for reinvention. The idea of spending three decades disengaged from meaningful activity increasingly feels unrealistic. As a re sult, retirement itself is changing. Many older Americans continue consulting, others launch businesses, some pursue encore careers. Still others return to work after retirement, or craft flexible schedules rather than permanent exits. Retirement is becoming less of a cliff and more of a … slope. The emerging model resembles mul tiple careers rather than one. A career track that includes a primary profession, a second career, some post-career con sulting and years volunteering or men- toring means that instead of one identity, there could be several. Instead of one re-

for people who are focused on things that are objective—accounting, for example—people who look through an objective lens, instead of someone who comes out and just wants to sell something,” he said.

leaving the work force. Retirement now accounts for roughly half of all Americans who are not participating in the labor force, and the ratio of retirees to new entrants continues to widen. That dynamic is particularly im portant for industries dependent on experience. Manufacturing firms need supervisors. Engineering firms need project leaders. Hospitals need nurs es, clinicians and administrators. Construction companies need estima tors and superintendents. These positions are difficult to

The Succession Challenge

Retirement is also creating one of the most significant business-transition events in modern history. Thousands of privately held companies remain con trolled by Baby Boomer owners.

Imagine Graduating from college at 22, retiring at 65 and living to 95.

replace because they are built on decades of accumulated knowledge. Kansas City employers have spent years discussing talent attraction. In- creasingly, they are confronting a dif ferent challenge: knowledge retention. The issue, then, is not merely replacing workers. It is replacing judgment. The wealth-management industry itself offers a revealing case study— and a contrarian one. The sector faces its own retirement wave, with a large cohort of advisers who built 40-year careers now approaching the exits. Battmer, for one, isn’t mourning all of those departures. “Frankly, there’s a high percent age that should retire,” he said. “For the average investor, there’s often a net negative, especially with the older cohort, which is often still adhering to a stockbroker mentality. People with a 40-year career often have an adher ence to a model that never actually created a benefit for clients.” Even so, the exits create the same replacement pressure felt across other sectors. “There’s always a need for tal ent,” Battmer said. The difference lies in the hiring profile: Firms like his are recruiting less for salesmanship and more for analytical discipline. “We expand our reach by looking

Many were founded decades ago; many continue to generate substantial revenues. And, almost paradoxically, many have no formal succession plan. Historically, owners often assumed a family transition would occur natu rally. Increasingly, that assumption is proving incorrect. Children frequently pursue different careers, and often have no interest in operating the busi ness. Others simply lack the experience required to assume leadership. The result is a growing reliance on alternative exits, including employee stock-ownership plans, private-equity transactions, strategic acquisitions and outright closures. For a region like Kansas City, where entrepreneurial companies have long been an economic engine, retirement planning increasingly overlaps with economic-development planning. Another historic shift is already underway. Economists and wealth ad visers refer to it as the Great Wealth Transfer. Over the next two decades, tens of trillions of dollars are expected to move from older generations to younger heirs and charitable causes. Estimates commonly range from roughly $84 tril The Wealth Transfer

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July 2026

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