The great recession of 2008 has shifted retirement plans of workers in general. This paper examines the changes in expected retirement age following the great recession of 2008 of a subset of the labor force—university faculty who are near retirees and participate in a defined contribution retirement plan. We find evidence consistent with the life-cycle model which predicts changes in expected retirement age when there are unexpected changes in retirement wealth. For the faculty who expected to delay planned retirement, the average delay is 4 years. Regression estimates indicate a longer time horizon moderates the delay in expected retirement. We also find evidence that expected wealth at retirement amplifies the delay in expected retirement age while current value of retirement wealth moderates the delay in planned retirement.