Elizabeth Parson Teaches Us About Life After Retirement

By Robert White, Editor-In-Chief

For high achievers accustomed to the rigorous pace of professional life, the word "retirement" can often feel like a finish line—an abrupt halt to identity, purpose, and daily momentum. But for Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons, it’s not a retreat. It’s a graduation. “Retirement shouldn’t be viewed as a withdrawal,” she says. “It’s a transition into a chapter where we finally get to choose how we spend our time. That’s liberating.”

Parsons is a former high-powered Wall Street attorney turned Retirement Transition Expert and the author of Encore: A High Achiever’s Guide to Thriving in Retirement, a timely and insightful guidebook for professionals stepping into life after the grind. Her mission? To help individuals navigate the often-overlooked emotional and relational upheavals that come with retirement—and ultimately, to thrive.

A magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Parsons spent the early years of her career in high-stakes law, clocking 80-hour workweeks. “I thought I’d saved enough to take a break,” she recalls. “But the moment I stepped away, I realized I had destabilized my entire identity.” It was this personal reckoning that sparked her journey into retirement coaching, eventually leading to the founding of Encoraco, her consulting firm focused on helping professionals plan purposeful, connected post-career lives.

Central to her philosophy is the understanding that relationships are not a luxury in retirement—they're a lifeline. “Work structures a lot more than just your schedule,” she explains. “It provides built-in collaboration, casual conversation, daily interactions. When that disappears, you have to rebuild it intentionally.”

In Encore, Parsons identifies six key ways relationships contribute to aging well: from emotional resilience to cognitive health, longevity, and personal growth. But she’s quick to point out that quality matters more than quantity. “We encourage clients to define what their ideal relationship world looks like, and then take steps to proactively create it,” she says. “That means reconnecting with dormant friendships, deepening family ties, and finding new collaborators for future endeavors.”

Isolation, she warns, is the silent killer of joy in retirement. “People underestimate how quickly loneliness can impact health, both physical and mental,” Parsons says. “Being intentional about building relationships is as vital as financial planning.”

Her approach isn’t just theoretical. Encoraco offers coaching well before retirement, sometimes even a decade out. “We prefer to work with people early,” she notes. “It’s about laying track—being deliberate about how to end one chapter on a high note and begin the next with clarity and energy.”

The book Encore is the result of both personal experience and two decades of professional insight. “I finally got to a place where I had to write it,” she admits. “If I didn’t, I was going to go crazy. There was too much I needed to say.”

She structured the book the way a lawyer might structure a complex transaction: with clear parts and purposeful flow. “The first section answers why retirement is hard. Then we talk about bridging identity and restructuring life, and finally, we dive into action—how to actually do it.”

Parsons doesn’t believe in the myth of pure leisure. “We’re not wired for endless vacation. We need effort. We need purpose. Retirement should be a time to invest in something meaningful—on your own terms.”

Whether you’re years away from stepping back or already grappling with what comes next, Encore offers a roadmap to reclaiming identity, reigniting purpose, and—most importantly—rediscovering connection.

To hear the full unedited behind-the-scenes interview with Elizabeth Parsons, tune in to the Savoir Faire Audio Experience, where her insights come to life in her own words.