A retirement coach for the chapter after your career

A retirement coach helps you plan the life side of retirement, not the money side. With Rarified Life, that means using the Preferment framework to separate your identity from your career, find what motivates you without a paycheck, and turn your values into a daily routine you actually live. The approach is presented as an alternative to conventional retirement, emphasizing personal values, meaningful pursuits, learning and physical activity.

Most retirement planning stops at the spreadsheet. The harder question tends to arrive on a Tuesday morning a few months in: you have more time than you have ever had, and no clear idea what it is for. Rarified Life coaching is built for that moment, and for the years before it, so the question has an answer before it becomes a weight.

Retirement coaching is a structured process that helps people prepare emotionally and practically for life after career. Rarified Life retirement coaching rests on its research-backed Preferment framework, which treats the end of a career as an ascension rather than an ending. Sessions focus on identity, motivation, alignment of values and time, and accountability, rather than investments or tax planning.

The distinction matters because the two kinds of preparation solve different problems. A financial plan tells you whether the money will last. Retirement coaching asks who you will be, how your weeks will be shaped, and what you are working toward once nobody else sets your calendar. Read the full guide to retirement coaching and life coaching for retirement.

These are Rarified Life's own figures, taken from its course and booking pages as of November 2026.

Length of the Breakthrough Session listed on the Rarified Life booking calendar

40 min

Weekly live sessions with Anne van Leynseele in the Preferment course

8

Modules in the Preferment framework, from Introduction to Launch

6

Career reinventions founder Anne van Leynseele has lived

4

Continents where Anne advised Fortune 100 companies on digital strategy

3

Investment stated in the Preferment course description

$3,000

The Rarified Life store listing for the course displays $6,000.00, which differs from the course description. Confirm the current price on the Rarified Life website before enrolling.

One-on-one retirement coaching is the right first step for most people, because it adapts to your timing and situation. The Preferment live course wins when you want a fixed eight-week curriculum. The free presentation suits anyone still deciding.

Both the coaching and the course follow the same six-module sequence. Each step builds on the one before it, which is why Rarified Life calls it a structured path rather than a self-help pep talk.

1. 1

   Introduction

   Where you are right now, and why the old model of retirement was never built for someone like you.

2. 2

   Identity

   Separating who you are from what you did for a living.

3. 3

   Motivation

   Finding what actually moves you now that a paycheck is not the reason.

4. 4

   Alignment

   Matching your values and strengths to how you will actually spend your days.

5. 5

   Accountability

   Building the structure that turns intention into a lived routine.

6. 6

   Launch

   Naming your mission for this next chapter, and stepping into it.

See how the Preferment framework works in detail

Retirement transition coaching is for the in-between: the years when your last day is approaching, or the months after it when the routine has gone and nothing has replaced it. Rarified Life says you can start this work without waiting for retirement day, and without asking anyone's permission, even if your last day is still years away.

Rarified Life's material describes a pattern it wants to help people avoid: capable people who get eight months into retirement and stop answering the phone. Starting early turns the transition into a plan you are carrying out rather than a shock you are reacting to. Learn about transition to retirement coaching.

Rarified Life was founded by Anne van Leynseele. She built and sold a production company in Los Angeles film and television, advised Fortune 100 companies on digital strategy across three continents, served as an Attorney Advisor in the Obama Administration, and helped write the legal framework for recreational cannabis in Washington State. Today she co-owns an award-winning chocolate farm on the Big Island of Hawaii, and she wrote the book Preferment is built on.

In Rarified Life's own words, she is not teaching a theory: she has lived four reinventions and shows you how to run your own. Read more about Anne and Rarified Life.

A 2026 overview of retirement coaching cites a meta-analysis finding that 28% of retirees experience depression, with a 40% spike in self-reported depression during the first years after retiring. The same overview reports a 30% uptick in retirement coaching demand as baby boomers retire (source: lifecoachingcertification.net).

Those are published market figures, not Rarified Life results. They explain why a growing number of people look for a life coach for retirement rather than relying on a financial plan alone. See more retirement statistics with sources.