125 Retirement Planning Lessons from Financial Experts
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Meet the Authors
Jamie Hopkins, CFP(R), JD
Jamie Hopkins is the Chief Executive Officer of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors and Chief Wealth Officer of WSFS. Jamie is a graduate of Temple University School of Law, where he received his LL.M., and Villanova University School of Law, where he earned his juris doctorate and his MBA. A Wall Street Journal best-selling author, educator, and executive speaker, Jamie serves on numerous advisory boards around the financial services industry and formerly as a national trustee member of NAIFA. Jamie is also the founder and president of the 501(c)(3) non-profit, FinServ Foundation and was named as a top 10 Investopedia 100 Top Financial Advisor for 2023. He is the author of bestselling Rewirement and the co-author of Your Retirement Sketchbook alongside Bonnie Treichel.
Bonnie Treichel, JD
Bonnie Treichel is the Founder of Endeavor Law and the Founder and Chief Solutions Officer of Endeavor Retirement, a consulting firm dedicated to solving problems for plan sponsors, advisors, and service providers in the retirement plan industry. She is a nationally recognized speaker and thought leader on retirement plan governance and best practices. Bonnie serves on the Board of the FinServ Foundation and has been honored with several national awards, including InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 (2023) and the ABA’s On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers Award (2022). Outside of work, Bonnie enjoys traveling, running, cycling, volunteering with Make-A-Wish, and spending time with her golden retrievers, Sadie and Sunny. Bonnie is the co-author of Your Retirement Sketchbook alongside Jamie P. Hopkins.
Your Retirement Sketchbook in the News
At Future Proof Citywide in Miami, my conversation with Bonnie Treichel, Chief Solutions Officer of Endeavor Retirement, kept circling a single theme: retirement is too individual to be reduced to a template. It’s a simple idea on the surface, but a significant departure from how advisors and investors have long framed retirement—as a fixed number, a target date, or a rigid formula. Treichel takes a more grounded view. In her telling, retirement is not a finish line to calculate in advance, but an evolving plan people should actively build, adjust, and personalize throughout their lives.
The New York Times' Your Money newsletter connected with Jamie Hopkins, a well-known voice within the retirement planning world and chief executive officer of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors, along with Bonnie Treichel, a retirement policy and regulatory expert and founder of Endeavor Retirement, a consulting firm. They recently co-authored a new book, “Your Retirement Sketchbook,” which tries to help people envision their retirement before they plan for it. We posed the same question to them as we do all new authors we cover: What’s the single piece of original thinking in their book, related to money, that they’re most proud of?
In this episode of Wealth on the Move, host Will Hoffman engages with Bonnie Treichel, J.D., co-author of Your Retirement Sketchbook. They discuss the complexities of retirement planning, emphasizing the importance of visualization, the psychological shift required for retirement (termed ‘rewirement’), and the need for community and purpose in this new phase of life. The conversation also covers practical aspects like social security, the upcoming wave of retirements (Peak 65), and the often-overlooked topics of pets and digital footprints in retirement planning. The episode encourages proactive discussions about retirement and highlights the dynamic nature of financial planning.
Advisorpedia talked with Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust and co-author of Your Retirement Sketchbook, live at the 2026 Nitrogen Fearless Investing Summit in Denver, Colorado.
In this thoughtful and energizing episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Bonnie Treichel, Chief Solutions Officer at Endeavor Retirement and Endeavor Law, to explore why retirement planning—and entrepreneurship—should never follow rigid, one-size-fits-all rules.
Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors, is also the author of three books: Rewirement: Rewiring the Way You Think about Retirement; Find Your Freedom: Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose; and, most recently, Your Retirement Sketchbook: 125 Retirement Planning Lessons from Financial Experts. The author walks us through the essentials of each of his books.
Shannon Edwards sits down with Bonnie Treichel to translate fiduciary responsibility into a simple, repeatable system you can actually run. Bonnie shows how clear roles, documentation, and cadence stop finger-pointing and free up time to help participants save more. Bonnie shares optimism about bipartisan momentum on coverage and the growing pipeline of next‑gen talent, plus a preview of her new book, Your Retirement Sketchbook, designed to make planning approachable and fun.
Have you ever talked to a friend, family member or colleague about retirement? Did you notice that their retirement (or plan for retirement) was not the same as yours?
We're not just talking about numbers. Retirement is different for everyone in a variety of ways: Location, timing, length, activities, finances, health, family, goals. The list goes on and on.
For this reason, it's helpful to use the "sketchbook" approach to retirement planning.
Most people think retirement planning is about reaching a magic savings number. Save enough, invest wisely, and everything else will fall into place.
But after years of working with individuals and families approaching retirement, I've learned that this narrow focus on saving often leaves people feeling unprepared, even when they've done everything "right" financially.
Financial advisors need to revamp their approach to retirement planning to make it more about flexibility in the golden years. A retirement plan should not be written in stone. So says Jamie Hopkins, chief wealth officer of WSFS Bank and CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. "Life is often about adapting and making small changes. But that approach hasn't really made it into retirement planning," he says.
“Your retirement shouldn’t be reduced to numbers and spreadsheets,” says Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors.
A longtime advisor, writer and teacher of financial planning concepts, Hopkins is partnering on a new book that attempts to tackle a not-fun topic (retirement planning) in a fun way. Hopkins and Bonnie Treichel co-wrote the recently published Your Retirement Sketchbook: 125 Retirement Planning Lessons from Financial Experts.
In Your Retirement Sketchbook, we outline nine core concepts that can serve as a powerful starting framework for advisors seeking to understand how clients truly think about retirement.
Although our book is written for consumers, advisors can use these nine themes to move the client conversations beyond numbers and toward meaning, mindset and behavior — areas that often determine whether a financial plan ultimately succeeds. Used together, the nine points create a structured but flexible discovery process that helps advisors uncover motivations, concerns, and blind spots early in the relationship.
Jamie Hopkins and Bonnie Treichel joined The Long View podcast to discuss best practices in retirement-income planning, harnessing mental accounting for the good, and their new book, Your Retirement Sketchbook.
Hopkins and Treichel also tried to steer clear of math, although they assembled their book using a spreadsheet instead of a traditional word-processing program. Treichel said their goal was to fill in the information in such a way that their 20-something illustrator, who had no financial background, could understand what they were saying to create a lead sketch for each of the 125 chapters. “We had to make it simple and give her inspiration, and go back and forth and make it easy to understand,” Treichel said.
In this episode of The Healthy Advisor, host Diana Britton chats with Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust and co-author of Your Retirement Sketchbook, about those fears and how childhood loss shaped his approach to retirement planning and life. He also explains the importance of financial advice access for underserved workers, the career decision that helped him be more present with his children, and why protecting health and relationships should matter as much as building wealth.
Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust, and Bonnie Treichel, partner at Endeavor Retirement, like to say that there are no commandments or universal laws for retirement. Instead, there are rules of thumb, best practices and helpful guides.
That’s why in their new book Your Retirement Sketchbook they literally and figuratively "sketch" out a retirement plan that can be lived and enjoyed, not simply calculated.
InvestmentNews sat down with the authors to learn more about their spirited new approach to saving for retirement.
Welcome to Talking T&E for Advisors, where Trusts & Estates Editor in Chief Susan Lipp and Jamie Hopkins, chief wealth officer at Bryn Mawr Trust, take seemingly complex estate planning issues and break them down for financial advisors.
In this video, they discuss Jamie's new book, Your Retirement Sketchbook, and how advisors can effectively help clients with retirement planning.
“Everyone’s retirement is different—location, timing, length, activities, finances, health, family, and goals all vary—so no single plan can be written in stone,” begins Bonnie Treichel and Jamie P. Hopkin’s new book, Your Retirement Sketchbook, in its first paragraphs. It’s a concept that’s challenged—and even revolutionized— the retirement industry in the past few years. Financial factors like concerns over rising costs of living and increased medical expenses, coupled with renewed personal outlooks and goals, have shifted traditional retirement norms.
“Everyone’s retirement is different—location, timing, length, activities, finances, health, family, and goals all vary—so no single plan can be written in stone,” begins Bonnie Treichel and Jamie P. Hopkin’s new book, Your Retirement Sketchbook, in its first paragraphs. It’s a concept that’s challenged—and even revolutionized— the retirement industry in the past few years. Financial factors like concerns over rising costs of living and increased medical expenses, coupled with renewed personal outlooks and goals, have shifted traditional retirement norms.
Most people are aware of our country's well-documented retirement crisis. For years, the retirement drilled various catchphrases into our collective consciousness: Know your number, the 4% rule, the 120 minus you rule and so on. Truthfully, retirement isn't a one-size-fits-all equation. We all live differently, so our retirements will also look different.
Are you overcontributing to your 401(k)?
Retirement expert Jamie Hopkins, co-author of “Your Retirement Sketchbook,” joins MarketWatch’s Beth Pinsker to discuss Roth IRAs and answer audience questions during Don’t Short Yourself Live
Retirement expert Jamie Hopkins, co-author of “Your Retirement Sketchbook,” joins MarketWatch’s Beth Pinsker to discuss Roth IRAs and answer audience questions during Don’t Short Yourself Live.
Retirement planning has long been framed around numbers. Savings targets, withdrawal rates, and portfolio allocations tend to dominate the conversation. While essential, these elements leave out something equally important: how people understand and connect with their plan. That gap inspired Your Retirement Sketchbook: 125 Retirement Planning Lessons from Financial Experts, a new book that takes a more visual, hands-on approach to one of life’s most significant transitions.
Bonnie Treichel, founder and chief solutions officer at Endeavor Retirement, sits down with InvestmentNews anchor Gregg Greenberg to highlight her new book “Your Retirement Sketchbook,” as well as explain how preparing for retirement requires visualization and emphasizing personal values.
Endeavor Retirement founder and chief solutions officer Bonnie Treichel joins Asking for a Trend Anchor Josh Lipton to explain why investors nearing retirement shouldn't let market volatility drive emotional decisions.
Endeavor Retirement founder and chief solutions officer Bonnie Treichel joins Asking for a Trend Anchor Josh Lipton to explain why retirement should be treated like a “sketchbook,” blending financial planning with flexibility, life changes, and purpose beyond the numbers.
Bonnie Treichel shares advice for people on the verge of retirement during this volatile time in markets. She warns against letting emotions take over and tells investors to focus on their long-term plan. She also looks at “phased retirements” and other ways to supplement income to avoid “sequence of return risks.” Markets falling hard in the first few years of retirements can be a big issue, she notes. Bonnie touches on how younger people are setting up retirement portfolios and the use of AI.
Your Retirement Sketchbook in the Wild
