How To Become A Retirement Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a retirement specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A retirement specialist plans and administers retirement packages for company employees. They determine the employees' eligibility and suitable benefits plan for their retirement while observing labor regulations and corporate policies.

They present various pension programs and retirement options, providing a clear picture of the scope, requirements, calculations, and procedures of the available benefits plans. It is also their responsibility to coordinate with the financial and human resource departments to verify data and contributions and resolve issues regarding benefits.

Keeping accurate and updated records of the members of pension programs is another important task of a retirement specialist. They must be familiar with accounting software and computer applications to collate and organize employee and financial data.

Pursuing this career path requires a bachelor's degree in human resource management, accounting, business administration, or a related discipline. Prior experience in a similar position and field is considered a great advantage for this job. Communication and management skills are essential qualities to be successful and reliable in this line of work.

ScoreRetirement SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $40,474

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.34%

Asian 7.69%

Black or African American 10.76%

Hispanic or Latino 15.41%

Unknown 3.63%

White 62.17%

Gender

female 47.97%

male 52.03%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a retirement specialist

Explore retirement specialist education requirements

Most common retirement specialist degrees

Bachelor's

70.9 %

Associate

11.3 %

Master's

7.8 %

Start to develop specific retirement specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Life Insurance	10.69%
HR	9.85%
Recordkeeping	7.84%
Payroll	7.80%
Medicare	7.09%

Complete relevant retirement specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New retirement specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a retirement specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real retirement specialist resumes.

Research retirement specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage and resolve participant escalations and requests from DOL.
Lead major initiatives in 3concurrent roles successfully manage affluent personal and business portfolio to proactively cross-sell additional products and services.
Review social security, Medicare, annuities and tax relate questions.
Process recalculations and payroll for retirees resuming their retirement benefits.

Prepare your retirement specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your retirement specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a retirement specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable retirement specialist resume templates

Build a professional retirement specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your retirement specialist resume.