Huge, according to a new US organization called PREP – The Partnership for Retirement Education and Planning (PREP)(www.preppartnership.com).

To help Boomers better understand and address the unique financial challenges they’ll face in retirement, 11 non-profit financial associations, representing more than 200,000 financial services professionals around the world, have formed this unprecedented collaboration.

“Unfortunately, the Boomer generation as a whole has not planned well for what is likely to be a lengthy retirement for most of them,” says Philip E. Harriman, CLU, ChFC, past president of the Million Dollar Round Table and spokesperson for the PREP coalition. “Recent research shows only one-third of retirees are very confident they will have enough money to take care of basic expenses. Current market dynamics increase their anxiety.”

Harriman says the non-profit PREP associations are working to better educate their members on the unique challenges facing the Baby Boomer generation; providing members with communication tools and resources to help them communicate with Boomers; and encouraging them to conduct community service education targeted at local Boomers, regardless of their financial status. He says, in addition to the sheer size of the Boomer generation, this group faces financial challenges no previous generation has encountered, including pension terminations, skyrocketing healthcare costs, uncertainty about government programs such as Social Security, decreased personal savings rates and significantly increased life expectancy.

Dedicated to improving financial literacy for Boomers, members of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and the Society of Financial Service Professionals (FSP) have founded PREP and are working in a concerted effort to provide awareness and education that will help Boomers take action in preparing for retirement. Other organizations, including the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA), GAMA International, Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA), Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA), and Women in Insurance and Financial Services (WIFS), also have joined in support of PREP.

According to PREP members, Boomers should make retirement planning a priority by considering the Lifestyle they wish to lead during retirement, determining the Life Income they will need to sustain their lifestyle for 20 to 30 years after retirement, and creating Lifeboats, such as disability insurance or life insurance, to protect them and their families from the unexpected. Since it is never too early to begin preparing for retirement, younger generations also should learn from the challenges Boomers face.

Finally, all PREP members have endorsed a Financial Dignity Bill of Rights, which dedicates them to helping provide financial education to the Boomer community.

The Financial Dignity Bill of Rights holds that individuals must create and protect their own financial well-being, supported by the right to:

  • Participate in employer sponsored plans, if offered.
  • Receive government benefits, if eligible.
  • Receive ethical and honest counsel from trained and capable financial professionals.
  • Financial solutions involving appropriate plans, products and fair, ethical practices from providers of financial services.

Financial professionals on this side of the border seem to agree with PREP – The Long Term Care Planning Network has had a busy spring and summer 2008 talking about the need for long term care planning as a part of every retirement plan

LTC Planning Network at MDRT – Karen Henderson a featured speaker

LTC Planning Network had a booth at the Toronto Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Annual Meeting conference in June and what a busy, exciting four days!

Members regard attendance at the MDRT Annual Meeting as a life and career-changing event because it provides them the opportunity to network with other successful producers and hear from the world’s most prominent speakers.

Over 7000 registrants from around the world attended. We met financial professionals from countries such as the West Indies, Singapore, India, the Philippines, Dubai, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Taiwan, Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Mexico – and of course the U.S. and Canada.

But more exciting for the Network was the MDRT invitation for Karen Henderson to speak. One of the first speakers at the conference, she delivered her presentation, entitledLong Term Care: Prepare Them, Don’t Scare Them to a capacity plus crowd in the Fairmont Royal York Hotel ballroom. The feedback was excellent; attendees truly appreciated her focus on usable, comprehensible content and continued to come by the Network booth to congratulate and thank her.

Each day during the conference MDRT publishes the Daily News, a review of selected speakers and events of the previous day. We opened the Wednesday, June 25 issue to find a full page plus photo on Karen’s presentation.

If you would like to read the article, which is full of tips on long term, care planning and marketing, visit the Daily News www.mdrt.org/stor/am/MDRT_June25.pdf and scroll down to page 8 or view the PDF File.

LTC Planning Network at The 5th World Critical Illness Insurance Conference – Karen Henderson a speaker

The focus on living benefits at this April event in Toronto made it an ideal venue for the Long Term Care Planning Network. Here we launched our new AdvisorWise™ Care Planning Program, an integrated kit of materials to educate both advisors and their clients about the need for long term care planning. Advisor feedback was exciting for us, as they responded with enthusiasm to the new tools and resources we have designed, including the Advisor Campaign Workbook, the LTC Guidebook plus CD, the Care Conversation pamphlet and the LTC Readiness Questionnaire, all unique resources in Canada (all (available at www.ltcplanningnetwork.com).

In addition we launched our new advisor-only web portal, Long Term Care Planning Central (www.ltcplanningcentral.com) and a series of turnkey seminars that enable advisors to hold their own long term care client education seminars easily and professionally.

The roster of international speakers once again included Karen Henderson, whose presentationLong Term Care Planning: What My Clients Don’t Know – and What I can Do About Itpresented the Network’s new 10-step Long Term Care Planning Process. The advisor feedback to this new planning approach was excellent; for more information about the process, you are invited to join Long Term Care Planning Central to access a your copy of How to Create a Client Care Plan.

2008 Mackenzie Financial University ‘Macku’ National Tour March-May

Each year Mackenzie Financial selects approximately six subject matter experts and designs an educational day for advisors across Canada to offer them new perspectives on both investment and management strategies for the coming year. Registration fees are donated to the Mackenzie Financial Charitable Foundation. The cities this year included Halifax, Vancouver, London, Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Winnipeg.

Mackenzie understands and supports the concept of long term care planning for clients and chose Karen Henderson to design and deliver a session on this topic. The Role of Long Term Care Planning: Considerations For Your Clients met with rave reviews across the country. After each session Karen was able to meet with advisors and answer their questions; advisors were delighted to be able to purchase The AdvisorWise™ Care Planning Program onsite in each city.