What's your encore? How The Commission supports you in retirement

by Patricia Nunez, MA, CRC, CDMS, CCM

After three decades in case management, the question everyone was asking was, "When are you going to retire?"

They didn't expect an honest answer: "I'm not ready. I love what I do."

That was my truth for years. After 33 years at CNA (one of the largest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurance companies), I genuinely loved my work, my team, and the contribution I was making. Retirement felt like someone else's story, not mine. But what I've learned is that the right time to retire isn't always when you're tired of working. Sometimes it's when the pieces align in ways that let you transition from one meaningful chapter to the next.

What truly made the decision viable was having a clear path forward.

Throughout my career, I balanced professional service with the demands of a full-time leadership role—staying active in membership associations, credentialing bodies, and accrediting organizations while managing teams and vendors at work. Being involved with The Commission™ made retiring feel safe instead of scary. Serving in leadership roles gave me meaningful work to look forward to and a clear sense of purpose moving forward.

That clarity made all the difference between retiring with purpose and retiring into uncertainty. Now, my time is my own to allocate. The Commission meetings and wine country excursions with my husband coexist on my calendar without conflict.

The Commission keeps me connected to service, to my profession, and to credentialing, all of which I strongly believe in and love. I continue to work alongside dedicated professionals who share the same mission and vision. It's professionally fulfilling without the organizational pressures of employment.

Plan your own encore

After stepping back, I discovered a few things that made the transition smoother. If you're thinking about retirement, here's my advice:

•      Start planning before you need to. Look at what you love doing now—volunteering, professional service, hobbies, etc. If all you're doing is working heads-down without looking around at your professional community, you may have a much harder transition.
   
•      Talk to a financial professional early. Understand your retirement landscape – both savings and benefits. Know what your retiree medical coverage looks like. Figure out your Social Security timing. The financial piece is often the scariest part, and you need real numbers, not just gut feelings.
   
•      Keep your credentials active. This is huge. I'm going on two and a half years retired, and I'm still maintaining my CDMS^® and CCM^®. How I am using them may be different, and you never know what is around the corner, which is exactly why I pursue continuing education opportunities wherever I can find them.  Keeping current in my profession continues to be my professional obligation, and I plan to renew both at renewal time.

I know people who retired and then found opportunities to go back part-time in clinical settings or different roles than where they'd been working full-time. They found real enjoyment in those opportunities, plus a little extra income. If they hadn't maintained their certification, they may not have had that option.

The retiree status as a smart option

If a certificant is still providing consulting or other services using their credential(s), they should recertify. However, The Commission also offers a retirement certification status. The CCM-R and CDMS-R allow non-practicing case managers and disability management specialists to remain flexible and stay connected with their professional community on their own terms. Choosing a retirement credential leaves the door open to reactivate your credential in case you want to return to the workforce within your renewal period (5 years from expiration date).

For example, if you return to full-time work, part-time work, volunteering, mentoring, or consulting, you have the option to renew without re-taking the exam. If you decide to return to active practice and meet renewal criteria, there’s no exam to retake. You have the ability to transition back. It’s a practical way to stay connected and keep your options open.

What retired professionals gain by staying connected

For those of us who are personally invested in our profession, connection is everything.

By volunteering with The Commission, whether it's item writing for the certification development, or any of the multiple opportunities available, you're utilizing the knowledge and expertise you've built over your entire career as a client advocacy professional. You're giving back to the profession you dedicated your life to and staying connected to peers through service, not employment.

There's innate satisfaction in that for many of us.

One thing that's been a surprise and a joy for me this year is that I had time to mentor new board leaders. A simple example: after our first board meeting with four new board members, I reached out to all of them to ask how it went and if they had questions. I never would have been able to do that if I were still working. I'd have been rushing back to my day job calls and catching up on the work emails that had piled up!

But now I have time to push pause and help mentor professionals who are going to be leading The Commission in developing a future-ready workforce in years to come. When you’ve been doing something for decades, much of it becomes second nature. However, when you have the chance to support someone who’s just starting out, you realize how much knowledge you’ve accumulated and how rewarding it is to share it.

Your encore awaits

Retirement doesn't have to be the end of your professional identity. It can be a new way of expressing everything you've built over your career.

The Commission is here to support you in that transition through volunteer opportunities, offering a retirement certification status, and a community of peers who understand what your profession means to you.

If you're thinking about retirement, I encourage you to maintain your credentials or learn more about the CCM-R and CDMS-R options. Keep those doors open. Stay connected. And start planning your encore now, because this isn't the end. It's just the next chapter, and it can be exactly what you make it.