What To Say When Announcing Your Retirement (With Template)

Updated February 3, 2023

Retirement is a stage of a professional's career that many individuals strive to reach. An important step toward retiring successfully is announcing your intent to retire to your company, which can help maintain professional relationships and ensure a positive work environment before you leave your company. If you plan on retiring soon, it may be beneficial to learn how to prepare a retirement announcement.

In this article, we show you the benefits of announcing retirement, describe the optimal time to announce your retirement and provide a complete how-to guide on announcing your retirement.

Benefits of announcing retirement

Announcing retirement offers many benefits over simply resigning from your position. If you work at the same company for many decades, it's courteous to announce your intentions so your company has time to select a qualified candidate to fill your position. Here are some other benefits of choosing to announce your retirement.

Time to plan

Announcing your retirement gives both you and your employer time to consider your options. You may not know what you'd like to do after your retirement yet, so announcing your intention to retire can provide you with time to consider this personal decision. It also allows your employer to fill the position you plan to leave with a qualified candidate.

It's helpful to plan your announcement and give the company plenty of notice before you retire. You can notify your superiors that you're thinking of retiring, so they have more time to search for a suitable candidate to fill your vacancy.

Professionalism

Concluding professional relationships positively helps you maintain a professional reputation even after you leave your company. By writing a retirement announcement, every employee has plenty of notice that you're leaving, and you can work on ways to continue certain relationships. Some companies even offer consulting opportunities and other ways for retirees to participate in a business after retiring.

Securing your company's retirement plans

Some company-sponsored retirement plans have a specific period in which employees must submit their intent to retire in written form. To ensure there are no challenges with your retirement, consider reading your company's policy to determine how much notice to give your company.

Each policy is specific to its company, so not giving notice in a specific time frame isn't always a guarantee of experiencing problems with your retirement plan. Offering notice can display courtesy toward your employer and allow you to secure your benefits.

Training your replacement

Your company may ask you to train someone to fill your vacancy, which requires time before you retire. Announcing your retirement early allows a company to choose a qualified candidate and determine whether you can help train them.

Allowing an experienced employee to train a new hire ensures quality and consistency and helps a new employee learn the nuances of their position that they can't learn with formal training.

When to announce your retirement

Here are some things to consider when determining the optimal time to announce your retirement:

Your financial plan: Ensuring you have enough financial resources to effectively retire is important. Consider checking your retirement plans, savings and debts to determine whether you're ready.
Your health care: Health care is an important part of retirement, and it may be beneficial to budget for any special care you may require. It's important to verify that you have a good insurance plan or if you're eligible for Medicare when planning your retirement.
Your goals: Another important facet of retirement to consider is your short- and long-term goals. When planning the right time to announce your retirement, try to determine how you want to spend your retirement and whether you want to maintain connections with your company.
Your home's status: Consider also evaluating your homeownership status before announcing your retirement to ensure you can afford any mortgage or repair payments you might have.

Once you have your personal financial affairs and goals in order, you may be ready to announce your retirement. This might vary for people in different stages of life or with different financial goals, but it may be helpful to determine whether you're ready to retire both financially and personally before you announce it.

How to announce your retirement

Using the right methods to announce your retirement helps both you and your company properly handle this important transition. Here are some steps you can follow to announce your retirement:

1. Research your company's retirement policies

The first step in an effective retirement process is researching your company's retirement policies to determine whether you qualify for retirement benefits and to ensure that you give your company proper notice.

Consider meeting with your HR department to discuss your retirement plan and the company's policies. You may be eligible to retire sooner than you thought or entitled to extra benefits based on your tenure with your company.

Related: 15 Remote Retirement Jobs

2. Speak with supervisors about options

Once you understand your company's retirement policy, consider talking with your supervisor about your options. Your employer may offer you a chance to serve as a company consultant or even a part-time adviser during your retirement.

You can always decline any extra work, but it may be helpful to consider all of your options when determining your plans for retirement. Having an experienced member of a company still working in some capacity on a team can help a business grow and maintain its company values.

3. Write an announcement letter or email

The next step in the process is to write your official retirement announcement letter. It's optimal to write your announcement, so you and your company each have a hard copy of your intentions to avoid miscommunication.

Consider using an online template to draft a brief professional letter detailing your position at the company, what you enjoyed about your work and your intent to retire. Another important piece of information to include in an announcement is the expected date of your retirement.

4. Give at least six months of notice

Some employers require as little as 30 days of notice of intent to retire, but it's often a professional courtesy to announce your retirement as soon as you can. This helps ensure that your company can fill your vacant position with a qualified candidate who can positively contribute to your organization. If you can, announce your retirement at least six months in advance.

5. Offer to help during the transition

Offering to help your employer during your transition is a professional courtesy and helps ensure that your company is well-equipped for the adjustment period after your retirement. Some ways to assist your company include helping find and train a replacement or eliminating your position entirely. This is also a great way to maintain professional relationships.

Retirement announcement template

Writing a retirement letter provides you and your employers with a hard copy of your intent to retire. Here's a template to follow for a consistent, professional retirement announcement:

Dear [supervisor's name],
My name is [your name], and I am pleased to announce my intention to set aside my duties at [company name] and enter retirement. I intend to retire on [anticipated retirement date]. I have enjoyed my tenure at [company name] as [position held] and hope to leave a legacy of professionalism behind me.
As [job title], I [a brief list of accomplishments that ideally contains some quantifiable achievements]. I also [another list of achievements that are more general]. I am grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to such an amazing company with wonderful people.
As [job title], I learned [list a few takeaway lessons you have learned from working for your company]. I also learned the value of professional relationships and increasing your skills in the workplace. As such, I present an offer to assist the company in any way possible during this transition.
Again, I intend to retire from my position as [job title] on [anticipated retirement date] and humbly request that [company name] prepare the necessary paperwork so that I might retire within my intended time frame.
Thank you for the many years of fulfilling work, support and training at [company name]. Here's my most current contact information that you can use to ask any further questions:
[Full name]
[Phone number]
[Email address]
Sincerely,
[Your name]