Rarified Life · The Preferment framework
Last updated: November 2, 2026
A retirement coach helps you plan the part of retirement your financial plan leaves out: who you are without the job, what moves you now, and how you will spend your days.
Rarified Life offers this through Preferment, a research-backed framework and platform for people, particularly high achievers planning life after 50, who want an active, purpose-driven next chapter. It aligns your future plans with your personal values, meaningful pursuits and continuous learning, so retirement becomes an ascension rather than an ending.
A retirement coach takes you through structured questions about identity, motivation, values and daily structure, then helps you hold yourself to the plan you build. At Rarified Life, founder Anne van Leynseele teaches that work through six Preferment modules over eight live weeks, using her book Preferment as the companion text and workbook.
It is not financial planning. Rarified Life argues that a meeting with a financial planner is the wrong place to start preparing for the rest of your life, because money answers only one of the questions retirement raises. Read the retirement coach cost guide for published prices, or the full FAQ for 47 plain answers.
Preferment is the Rarified Life framework for reshaping retirement into an active, purpose-driven next chapter. The word means advancement, and the idea behind it is simple: the years after a career deserve as much design as the career did.
It is built for driven people who are done treating retirement as an ending. You do not need a five-year plan to begin. You need a structured place to start figuring it out, and a sequence that moves from identity to a named mission.
As of November 2026, from rarifiedlife.com.
Each option answers a different question. This table, prepared by Rarified Life, compares them on the same four criteria.
| Criterion | Retirement coach (such as Preferment) | Financial planner | Planning alone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main question | Who am I and how will I spend my days? | Will my money last? | Whatever you choose to ask |
| Structure | Sequenced modules and homework | Financial plan and reviews | Self-directed |
| Accountability | Weekly live sessions | Periodic meetings | None built in |
| Best fit | Money is planned, direction is not | Savings, income and investments | Strong self-starters with time to reflect |
Most people benefit from a financial planner and a coach together. When choosing a financial adviser, one widely shared piece of advice, from a video on life goals after 50, is to ask first whether they are a fiduciary to you 100% of the time.
Introduction. Where you are right now, and why the old model of retirement was never built for someone like you.
Identity. Separating who you are from what you did for a living.
Motivation. Finding what actually moves you, now that a paycheck is not the reason.
Alignment. Matching your values and strengths to how you will actually spend your days.
Accountability. Building the structure that turns intention into a lived routine.
Launch. Naming your mission for this next chapter, and stepping into it.
See everything included in the live 8-week Preferment course.
“I thought work defined me, but I discovered I am so much more. I learned to 'be' rather than just 'do' on autopilot.”
First step
The 40-minute Breakthrough Session
A focused first conversation before committing to anything larger.
Read about the sessionThen
Explore the Preferment platform
Six modules, from identity to launch, taught over eight live weeks.
Explore PrefermentA retirement life coach focuses on the human side of leaving a career: identity, purpose, relationships and routine. Rarified Life brings that focus to people whose sense of self has been closely tied to their work, and who want a structured path rather than a pep talk.
Life after 50 can be the most self-directed chapter you have had. For accomplished people, though, it often arrives with a quiet question: what is all this time for? Rarified Life treats that as a design problem, starting with identity and ending with a mission you name yourself.
A plain guide to life after 50 and 60, or browse retirement statistics with sources.
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.
