The Primetime planning system was born through personal experience in having parents who are now towards the latter stages of their Primetime (retirement) journey. I started planning  with them around twenty years ago and involvement by my self and siblings has increased over time

The learnings were that even competent people such as my parents found the areas of knowledge needed to navigate through all the different aspects of planning are complex, subject to constant change, and bureaucratic. Researching to finding the right information was and is difficult, and more often than not specialist knowledge was needed to ensure things stayed on track.

Having a 30 year professional career, I felt confident that I would be able to work with the family members to ensure mum and dad were well taken care of through retirement and into their latter years.

What became apparent for us as a family was that from the period of transitioning into retirement through to the latter years there didn’t seem to be anyone that could be consulted that was knowledgeable on all aspects of planning through retirement.

When talking to friends, clients and other professional advisors there developed a common theme;  generally there was little scenario planning for retirees which took into account the wider aspects of retirement planning and scenario planning for longer term planning needs. Action was taken when an event occurred and everybody had to scramble to research what to do and do it quickly.

The urgency meant less time for consultation, and high levels of stress and anxiety. Lack of planning also meant limited options were available and compromises were required.

It doesn’t need to be this way.

With forethought and proactive planning, people and couples can enjoy peace of mind and optimise their quality of life when they finish working life and their time is their own. This is through being proactive taking care of themselves, their partners and their affairs.

THE EVOLUTION OF PRIMETIME INTO THE NEW AGE

The business started off as as a personal service offering called Elderplan. The personal service meant the planning wasn't available to everybody due to cost or access. With the rapid change with how people, including retirees, use technology and the internet, I took the ElderPlan system and made it available to everyone, everywhere, online at an affordable cost.

Another learning was that people don't like to think of themselves as elderly and this created a mindset barrier as people thought that the Elderplan was planning for old age; not particularly appealing. For this reason I have relaunched the service as the Primetime planning system. Primetime more readily defines the intent of the system and identifies with the people who can use this system to plan for what should be the prime time of their life, when they can truly call their time their own.

Our personal service is still there to those who need and want it but it is now more flexible and provides greater choice.