integrative adviser no 0101

8/8/2019 Integrative Adviser No 0101

1/24

TTThhheee

IIInnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiivvveeeAAAdddvvviiissseeerrr

TTThhheeeJJJooouuurrrnnnaaalllooofffttthhheeeAAAssssssoooccciiiaaatttiiiooonnnfffooorrrIIInnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiivvveeeFFFiiinnnaaannnccciiiaaalllaaannndddLLLiiifffeeePPPlllaaannnnnniiinnnggg

VVVooollluuummmeee111,,, NNNuuummmbbbeeerrr111 JJJuuunnneee222000000888


2/24

TTThhheeeIIInnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiivvveeeAAAdddvvviiissseeerrr

TTThhheeeAAAssssssoooccciiiaaatttiiiooonnnfffooorrrIIInnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiivvveeeFFFiiinnnaaannnccciiiaaalllaaannndddLLLiiifffeeePPPlllaaannnnnniiinnnggg

VVoolluummee11,, NNuummbbeerr11 JJuunnee22000088

CCCooonnnttteeennntttsss

Toward a Richness of Life A White Paper on the Advantages of IntegratingFinancial and Life Planning and the Need for a Professional Association toPromote It, by the AIFLP organizing team.................................................. 1

Integrative Advising, By E. Craig MacBean...................................................... 6

Retirement for Career Women: Its More than Money, by Helen Dennis andBernice Bratter.......................................................................................12

Guarding Family Security, by Joe Zedalis.......................................................16

Research Notes ...........................................................................................20

The Integrative Adviser is distributed electronically six times a year by the Association for Inte-grative Financial and Life Planning. To be added to the distribution list, contact the General Edi-tor. There is currently no charge for inclusion on the distribution list.

The Associations primary purpose is to help bridge the gap between financial and life planningspecialists, by supporting the development of methods and tools to further integrate them, andby supporting the establishment of viable ways for individual practitioners to work together. TheIntegrative Adviseradvances this goal by providing education and publicity concerning holisticplanning and advice concepts to our primary constituencies: the financial industry (financial com-panies and advisers), the life planning movement (individual practitioners and organizations thatsupport them), other supporting organizations (such as employers and voluntary associations),and the broader community (including journalists, academics, and the general public).

We encourage people with diverse interests and views to contribute articles to The IntegrativeAdviser. If you have an idea or a manuscript to submit, contact the General Editor.

General Editor............................ Charles S. Yanikoski ([email protected])

The office of the Association for Integrative Financial and Life Planning, and of The IntegrativeAdviser, is located at 69 Lancaster County Rd., Harvard, Massachusetts 01451.

2008 by the Association for Integrative Financial and Life Planning
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


3/24

TTTooowwwaaarrrdddaaaRRRiiiccchhhnnneeessssssooofffLLLiiifffeee:::

AAAWWWhhhiiittteeePPPaaapppeeerrrooonnnttthhheeeAAAdddvvvaaannntttaaagggeeesssooofff IIInnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiinnngggFFFiiinnnaaannnccciiiaaalllaaannndddLLLiiifffeeePPPlllaaannnnnniiinnnggg,,,

aaannndddttthhheeeNNNeeeeeedddfffooorrraaaPPPrrrooofffeeessssssiiiooonnnaaalllAAAssssssoooccciiiaaatttiiiooonnntttoooPPPrrrooommmooottteeeIIIttt

by the AIFLP Organizing Team1

Advisers such as financial planners, lifeplanners, and career counselors, alongwith others who see themselves as dis-tinct from these disciplines, all seek thewelfare and happiness of their clients.However, the effectiveness of each isimpaired by their separation from oth-ers. Financial planning without thebroader context of life planning mayenable the client to become rich andold, but neither richly old nor even nec-essarily secure. Career counseling thatdoes not accommodate an employeesnon-work life, relationships, and non-financial aspirations can fail both theemployee and the employer. Life plan-ning, pursued without grounding in a

financial component, can produce in-spiring dreams that are doomed to fail-ure because they lack the resources forrealization.

Marrying these disciplines is no easytask, but it needs to be pursued, nowmore than ever. While integrative ad-vising can be beneficial to anyone, it isparticularly crucial for people of retire-ment age a population that is bur-geoning, and looking for help.

We, and others we represent, seek toform a national association that willpromote the integration of financial andlife planning (both terms to be under-stood broadly): integration of eachwithin its own domain, and even more

importantly, across these domains. Andwe call upon professionals in these are-nas, upon financial companies, uponemployers and voluntary associations,upon academics and writers, and uponthe public at large to help discover andpromote ways of integrating these dis-ciplines, so that all parties may benefitto the fullest extent.

Goal #1: To bridge the gap be-tween financial and life plan-ning specialists, by supportingthe development of methodsand tools to further integratethem, and by supporting the es-tablishment of viable ways forindividual practitioners to worktogether.

This is not a new idea. The best financialadvisors have always considered their cli-ents broader plans, attitudes, emotions,relationships, health, and other such fac-tors. And long before life planning and life coaching became popular terms,wise counselors always have taken intoaccount practical issues, including finan-

cial reality.Over the past two decades or so, theseinstinctive practices have become some-what more systematized, as innovatorsfrom both sides of the aisle have tried outnew tools (questionnaires, discussion

____________________________________________

1 The AIFLP Organizing Team consists of Wayne Bogosian, Matthew Clement, Craig MacBean,Chuck Yanikoski, and Joe Zedalis. We also gratefully acknowledge Doug Dickson for his valu-able comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

1


4/24

guides, software applications, profes-sional workshops, etc.) and written nu-merous books and articles in both aca-demic and popular flavors. These createa context where success is imaginable,but they do not, by themselves, actuallygenerate that success because substan-tial obstacles remain:

The weight of tradition. Establishedpractices especially in financial plan-ning, which is well established haverarely crossed this divide. To the ex-tent that traditional, narrow practiceshave been successful, especiallywhere they have been financially suc-cessful for practitioners, there is littleincentive to change. In some casesthere may be outright competition be-tween financial and life planners.

Practical difficulties. Being a goodplanner of either kind requires consid-erable devotion to ones profession.Being good at both is roughly twice ashard. And practitioners often see thetime it takes to do the other task asless worthwhile. There also tend tobe differences in business models andcompensation methods, as well asregulatory issues, that impair true uni-fication of financial and life planningpractices.

Stylistic incompatibilities. Perhaps thebiggest obstacle is that financial plan-ning tends to attract people with ana-lytical and mathematical minds, wherelife planning tends to attract peoplewhose relative strengths lie in peopleskills. Most practitioners probablylack the natural ability and inclination

to excel at both.

Incomplete methods. As notedabove, progress has been made indeveloping concepts and tools to linkthese two realms of planning but weare a long way from having methodsthat work reliably except for the giftedminority.

Lack of understanding. The idea ofintegrating financial and life planninghas not yet entered the mainstream.Professional advisors, who mostlycannot deliver it, do not promote it.Financial companies increasingly implyit in their advertising, but also cannotdeliver. Meanwhile, the thinking andwriting and talking that have occurredso far have not reached a criticalmass, and the public remains mostlyunaware that integrative planning iseven a possibility, so they do not de-mand it.

These obstacles can be overcome. Wecan develop tools and methods that willbe usable by advisors who are not ex-perts in every skill. Perhaps even moreimportant, we can encourage profession-als with complementary skills to work to-gether. In the end, helping establish pat-terns of cooperation among financial andlife planners is probably a more realisticstrategy than expecting either to becomeadept at the others specialties. And yet,the more we can educate and encouragemembers on each side of this classic di-vide to move closer together, to appreci-

ate and understand each other better,and even, at least in rudimentary ways,to incorporate appropriate portions of theothers specialties into their own prac-tices, the shorter stretch we will have intrying to build bridges between them.

We believe that the delivery of integrativeplanning can be made profitable for prac-titioners, and for financial companies withproducts to sell. It can be made a valu-able benefit for employees and for mem-

bers of voluntary associations. It can be-come the next new tradition, and thecomprehensive standard that the publicexpects. Our new association is intendedto help turn this vision into reality.

2


5/24

Goal #2: To support ways that fi-nancial planning, taken by it-self, can become more compre-hensive and integrated espe-cially, but not exclusively, forpeople in or near retirement.

Granted, comprehensive planning is notalways the goal. Especially for youngerpeople, the need is often for ways tocope with particular issues (saving for ahouse, saving for childrens education,paying down debt), not re-evaluating thecurrent career or family path, or restruc-turing a portfolio that barely even exists.Clients of all ages often come to plannerswith specific problems in mind, and thats

all they want to pay for.But for people looking at winding downtheir careers while also scanning aheadfor what might be new, for people whosimply feel the need for major changes intheir lives, or for people who are havingsuch changes thrust upon them whe-ther by the infirmities of age or illness, orby other transitions such as divorce,death of a spouse, job termination, andso on a comprehensive look at ones

financial picture is essential.It is particularly critical for people in ornear retirement. Most people in this agegroup have relatively fixed incomes, yetthey face severe financial risks: not onlythe financial and economic risks that weall face, but increased health risks (highermedical costs, the burdens of care-takingfor spouses, incapacity to continue witheven light work or to manage ones ownfinances, the risk of living too long and

running out of money), and risks of re-ductions in pension, Social Security, orpost-retirement health benefits. Mean-while, as they age they have fewermeans to cope with financial risk theycant reclaim their old job, and they maynot be in a position to get a new one.

For most people in their mid-fifties and

up, therefore, the quality of financialplanning needs to enter a much higherplane. Simplified short-cut methods,analyses that look at individual problemswithout seeing the overall financial con-text, and tools created more to sell prod-ucts than to solve problems, may all domore harm than good for this audience. Yet performing a truly comprehensive,detailed, and integrated financial analysisis both difficult and time-consuming,when it is possible at all.

In principle, this problem can be solved,however. Tools and methods that pro-vide the necessary analysis in a cost-effective way can be created. Both prac-titioners and their clients can insist onthem, and financial companies and indus-try vendors can provide them. One ofour goals, therefore, is to promote theunderstanding of this comprehensiveneed and its potential solutions.

Goal #3: To support the develop-ment of l ife planning/coachingmethodologies, so that thisform of planning and advice isless dependent on the individ-ual genius of the practitioner.

Life planning may be both the oldest andnewest advisory service. Surely, evenbefore the invention of money, peoplecounseled others about lifes problems.Institutions both religious and secularhave long offered such support. But onlyrecently has life planning or life coach-ing arisen as a profession separable fromreligion, education, social work, or psy-

chotherapy. Yet it has roots in thosefields (as well as in financial planning).

The novelty of this realm, its roots in mul-tiple disciplines, and the difficulty oftranslating wisdom into insight and theninto change all make life planning ahubbub of ideas and practices. There isno unanimity about it, and while some

3


6/24

intrepid thinkers and practitioners havedeveloped conceptual models and specifictools and methods, these have mostlyremained relatively local and experimen-tal. Partly as a result of this, success inlife planning is highly dependent on theindividual genius of the practitioner.

Certainly it would be a mistake to try toquash the creativity and excitement thatwe see today in life planning. And yet,there will never be enough practitionerswith the intuitive skills (or the social sci-ence training and experience) to serveeveryone who needs counsel. It is impor-tant, therefore, that an array of sound,standard methods and tools be developedthat can be widely accepted not as astrait-jacket for those who are creative,but as a help and guide to those who areless so, whose primary expertise lieselsewhere, or who are working withoutthe help of a professional adviser.

It would be utopian perhaps darkly so to imagine that there will ever be oneuniversal methodology in life planningand coaching, any more than there will bea single religion, a single philosophy, or asingle form of psychotherapy. All meth-ods and models are, of necessity, flawed:incomplete, inexact, not universally appli-cable. But some models are useful none-theless. So we aspire to support the de-velopment and propagation of multipleapproaches, each having its appropriateaudience, with some able to be used ef-fectively even by non-specialists includ-ing financial planners.

Goal #4: To pursue publicity and

education concerning holisticplanning and advice concepts,aimed toward the financial in-dustry (financial companies andindividual advisors), the lifeplanning movement (individualpractitioners and organizationsthat support them), other sup-

porting organizations (such asemployers and voluntary asso-ciations), and the broadercommunity (including journal-ists, academia, and the generalpublic).

We have been outlining here a case forplanning methods and practices that areintegrative (or holistic), both within thefinancial and life planning domains andbetween them. And we are proposing anassociation of like-minded individuals tohelp support the development and im-plementation of such concepts, methods,tools, and practices.

Some of what is needed is simple net-

working: bringing together people withsimilar goals but different ideas and ex-periences. But once the connections aremade, much more needs to be done.Driving these ideas into the marketplacewill require the participation of many par-ties. Participation, in turn, will not hap-pen without both understanding and mo-tivation. Both of these are lacking now.

Understanding is easier to promote,though we all understand better when we

are motivated. Motivation itself is im-peded by both inertia and contraveninginterests. Among practitioners, for exam-ple, it is easiest to continue past prac-tices, particularly if they seem successful in which case, what is new and bettercan seem more a threat than an opportu-nity. Among financial institutions, whilethere is a competitive drive toward inno-vation, there are also complex hurdles;ideas that are too innovative rarely getsupport. Among journalists, emphasis

falls on reporting what is, rather thanwhat could be.

It takes many working together to findthe cracks in the walls of tradition andinertia. So an important part of our mis-sion is educational and promotional tohelp get the snowball rolling downhill.

4


7/24

We also recognize that the need extendsbeyond professional advisers, becausethere will never be enough of them toserve the entire population. In the U.S.,the National Association of Insurance andFinancial Advisors (NAIFA) has about100,000 members, the Financial Planning Association has about 30,000 members,and the International Coach Federationabout 8,500. Even if all of them werecompetent to merge both skill sets, therewould be nearly 1,000 U.S. householdsfor every such planner. Granted, thereare other classes of advisers, but most ofthem (and, in fact, most of those belong-ing to the associations already named)are specialists of some kind. And in any

case, their numbers will never suffice toserve everyone. So collectively, we needways to reach and assist the broader pub-lic, as well as professionals.

Goal #5: To engage in advocacy forpolicies and practices, includingsocial and political issues thatdirectly or indirectly affect in

significant ways the welfare ofvulnerable constituencies.

Integrative planning, on the personallevel, involves understanding the connec-tions among multiple domains of onesown self and life. But these connectionsmirror connections in society at large.For example, just as the cost of healthcare can drain a familys resources andprevent them from dealing with otherneeds, so can the national costs of healthcare drain our societal wealth and preventus from tackling other issues the way we

would like to.

This is not mere analogy. The choices wemake as a society visit us as individuals.How society funds health care, how it de-livers it geographically or socio-economically, how it encourages or dis-courages the availability of different kinds

of health care workers, how it supports orprevents the development of new medi-cines and therapies, how it regulatesmedicine and health care in the end,these will affect your life and finances andthe lives and finances of people you wishto help. So will a host of other social,political, and economic decisions someof them quite likely of even more impor-tance than health care.

The more we understand the integrationof financial and life planning on the indi-vidual level, the more clearly we will un-derstand the corresponding issues in thesocial and political spheres. With suchunderstanding comes the obligation toshare it, and to advocate for positionsthat take these connections into account.Such advocacy need not occur only, oreven primarily, in the political sphere.Social attitudes, business policies andpractices, the practices of care-giving or-ganizations, and many other arenas areavailable for, and often in need of, abroader perspective.

Although we do not see our new associa-tion as primarily an advocacy group be-cause such groups tend to be divisive andexclusionary we do expect to be in aposition to share insights with those whomake or influence policy.

An inv itation.

If you sympathize with the goals we havelaid out in this White Paper, or if you sim-ply want to keep tabs on our progress,we encourage you to make contact. Youcan get onto the distribution list of the

Association for Integrative Financial andLife Planning by emailing Chuck Yanikoski([email protected]).

5


8/24

IIInnnttteeegggrrraaatttiiivvveeeAAAdddvvviiisssiiinnnggg

by E. Craig MacBean

Who knew?

Back when life insurance was sold fromrate books rather than printouts, andthe closest anyone could come to a pro-posal was a pre-printed sheet from theHome Office with blanks that an agentfilled in from the rate book by hand ortypewriter, who knew that the indus-try would evolve to asset allocation andMonte Carlo simulations and a veritablealphabet soup of (mostly meaningless)

credentials? Back when psychiatristsactually talked to patients about morethan their meds, back when careercounseling meant little more than hir-ing or firing, back when coaching wassomething done mostly by guys withbigger necks than heads, who knew thatwork-life issues would become a majorfocus of Human Resources managementin large companies, and that life coach-ing would emerge as a kind of proac-tive therapy leading to more satisfyingliving without having to be in recovery?Back when you could tell a stockbrokerfrom an insurance agent, and eitherfrom a banker or a mortgage broker,who knew that we would all becomeadvisers with as many meanings ap-plied to that term as there are, well, ad-visers? Or is it advisors?

And now this.

What is it?What, pray tell, is an Integrative Ad-viser? And why do we need one? Forthat matter, what is integrative advis-ing?

Let me propose a definition, and thentake it apart piece by piece to see if itmakes sense. I suggest that:

Integrative advising is a proc-ess by w hich an adviser, takinginto account all aspects of cli-ents lives currently, providessituation analysis from multiplelife perspectives, facilitatesplanning for l iving the rest oftheir lives by suggesting alter-

native strategic responses totheir situation, and supportsthem in implementing chosenplans, repeating the process tostay proactively current as wellas reacting to life as it happens.

Importantly, the process is not self-contained, but ongoing. The desiredoutcome is clients who are thriving, nomatter what condition their condition isin or where they are in the lifespan.Clients benefit from insights into and

preparation for the future, with refer-ence both to themselves (dreams anddesires) and to general reality (potentialcrises and transitions). Integrative Ad-visers educate their clients, motivatethem to do what needs to be done, andsupport them in doing it. Theirs is adeep and long-lasting client relationship.

What it is not

There are some aspects of integrativeadvising that are better understood inthe negative by what they are not,rather than what they are.

First, integrative advising and integra-tive planning are not the same thing.Integrative planning is a subset nec-essary, but not sufficient, for integrative

6


9/24

advising because integrative advisingpresumes a lifelong interactive relation-ship, and by definition planning anyplanning has an endpoint. While thismay seem trivial, with repetition the dif-ference becomes meaningful and thelong-term nature of the adviser-clientrelationship is established and rein-forced.

Second, integrative advising and finan-cial planning of any description are notthe same thing. Financial situationanalysis, projection of alternative out-comes given different strategies, andsupport with implementation of chosenfinancial plans and products is a subsetof, but not equivalent to, integrative ad-vising. Life, after all, is about more thanmoney (regardless of where you shop),and a process that holds out client thriv-ing as the target outcome must beabout all that constitutes living.

Further, choices made in apparentlynon-financial areas of life, such ashealth or relationships, often have fi-nancial implications. For example, life-style choices that jeopardize health fre-quently add financial burdens in laterlife as diseases of choice such as dia-betes, congestive heart failure, emphy-sema and some cancers present theirdue bill for years of neglect. A cavalierattitude toward making and sustainingdeep friendships, or an unwilling spiritwith regard to sharing with others, canreduce one in later years to dependingon the kindness of strangers, regardlessof how much wealth has been accumu-lated. And so on.

The corollary is also true: life without enough money is hard, maybe hardenough to prevent thriving in all but thehardiest of souls, and advising that ig-nores such practical realities as financesand where people live is insufficient tothe task of supporting clients in livingrichly fulfilling lives.

Parsing

Now, lets parse that definition. First,integrative advising is a process. It isnot a sales technique or an approachtalk or academic theory; it is a process.

As such, it has identifiable, generallyagreed-upon steps: data gathering,situation analysis, identification of stra-tegic options, analysis of impacts of op-tions, recommendations, and implemen-tation of chosen options. While differentpractitioners may label these steps dif-ferently, or conflate some or expandothers, there is likely to be generalagreement on these steps, at least atthe generic level.

Second, it is a process by which an ad -viser... There are some jobs that arebetter done by computers, and somethat can be done only by a human. Thisis of the latter class. That means, also,that it cant be outsourced, or shippedto Southeast Asia to be done at acheaper rate.

Third, it is aprocess by which an ad-viser, taking into account all aspects of clients l ives currently...

The expressed commitment is to take abroad view of clients lives; to be inter-ested in everything about them, not justall their money. That has implicationsfor both the kind and amount of data tobe gathered, as well as the kinds andcomplexity of analysis to be done. Italso suggests that data gathering, atleast in large measure, is best done as apersonal interaction between the clientand the adviser, and (correspondingly)that movements to off load the data-

gathering process to the client or aparaprofessional will not be successful inan integrative environment.

Fourth, it is a process by which anadviser, taking into account all aspects of clients l ives currently, provides situation analysis from

7


10/24

multiple l ife perspectives... To theextent that each identified aspect of aclients life interacts with and is im-pacted by other aspects of a clients life,situation analysis for that individual willbe more complicated than the kinds ofanalysis commonly provided in financialor retirement planning. Further, to theextent that one member of a couple, ora family, or a businesss ownershipgroup interact with and are impacted byothers, the resulting multi-faceted situa-tion analysis needs at least to be ob-served and noted, if not detailed. All ofthis suggests that an integrative adviserwill need to have both a map of lifewhich can serve as a context for doing

situation analysis, and a model of liv-ing that takes into account at leastmore than one life perspective ideally,all life perspectives. All that said, how-ever, it is also worth noting that part ofthe art of integrative advising is knowingwhen to generalize even though infor-mation is available that would facilitategreater precision, and when to force anapparent degree of precision even wheninformation to support it is not at hand.In short, this is the art of knowing whatthe client is prepared to hear, and whatnot.

Fifth, it is aprocess by which an ad-viser, taking into account all aspects of clients l ives currently, provides situation analysis frommultiple l ife perspectives, facil i-tates planning for l iving the rest oftheir l ives by suggesting alterna-tive strategic responses... Whilesuggesting or providing optional strate-gic responses to a situation may be seenas the heart of planning (as well as thebeginning of making a sale) it is simplyinsufficient to the task of planning andsupporting clients in thriving throughthe rest of their lives to take other thana strategic approach. Thus, integrativeadvising will always require a consulta-

tive client-centered approach to productplacement whether that product befinancial, educational, or consultative,and regardless of the domain in which itis offered and the time required toaccomplish that must be taken into ac-count. No matter whether the productrelates to financial issues or health orrelationships or spirituality or home orlife structure or career or living inten-tionally, integrative advising will neversupport a hard sell approach.

Sixth, it is aprocess by which an ad-viser, taking into account all aspects of clients l ives currently, provides situation analysis frommultiple l ife perspectives, facil i-tates planning for l iving the rest oftheir l ives by suggesting alterna-tive strategic responses, and sup-ports them in im plementing chosenplans... Because integrative advisingdeals on such an intimate level with allof a clients life, adoption of recom-mended strategic plans will rarely be ananswer to a yes/no kind of question.More often, an integrative advisor willfind her/himself saying things like, On

the one hand, this approach completelyresolves the issues identified in thefrailty planning sections of the situationanalysis, but it does almost nothing toforward your dreams for a substantialfinancial legacy. Also, it will support asense of security in your spouse, whichis an important part of your relationshipstrategies. So, do you want to reviewwhat weve said about where you arewith regard to frailty and legacy, andhow you feel about those two areas,before you adopt this strategic re-sponse, or are you satisfied with thattradeoff for the current planning hori-zon? Are you and your spouse of onemind?

Seventh, and finally, integrative advisingis a process by which an adviser,

8


11/24

taking into account all aspects ofclients l ives currently, providessituation analysis from multiple l ife perspectives, facil itates planningfor l iving the rest of their l ives bysuggesting alternative strategic re-sponses, and supports them in im-plementing chosen plans, repeatingthe process to stay proactively cur-rent as well as reacting to life as ithappens. A static plan is pretty muchuseless. As John Lennon said, life iswhat happens when youve made otherplans, and any advising process must beconsistently updated to take changingattitudes and circumstances into ac-count both for proactive planning and

for reacting to such changes as an ad-viser might need to deal with immedi-ately. While developing and refining aplan is likely to take several months,maybe even a year or more, and whilethe plan will be a fluid, constantly evolv-ing document, sometimes circumstancesrequire that the integrative advisor likely the most trusted adviser a clienthas will be called upon to give adviceor take action right! now! without re-gard to multifaceted analyses.

Requirement #1: A map of the ex-perience of l iving

This definition suggests that, like anyother profession, integrative advisingrequires certain de minimus tools. Thefirst is some honest sense of what thefuture of any life might hold, and a vo-cabulary to talk about it. As long as onestays away from the integrative arena

and sticks exclusively to financial mat-ters, this requirement seems to disap-pear. After all, the only variable is rateof return, right? And volatility, maybe.

However, when one steps into the inte-grative arena, that all changes. A poten-tial saving grace is that there are lots ofmodels of the future of any life.

Chronological models denote phasesand stages by years lived easy to un-derstand, but virtually worthless in pre-dicting crises and transitions that mightlie ahead. Doesnt everyone know (andcelebrate) a ninety-something who isthriving? And know a sixty- or seventy-something who has all but curled up todie? The Census Bureaus young old,old, and old old categories sometimesparodied as go go, slow go, and no go do nothing to help us, either.

A few scholars have proposed generalframeworks based on life stages andpsychological developmental tasks. Dan-iel J. Levinson (The Seasons of a MansLife, 1978, later popularized by GailSheehy in Passages), and Erik Erikson(The Life Cycle Completed, 1982) areprobably the best known, althoughDonald Super, who comes at it from acareer planning perspective, has alsomade significant contributions (LifeRoles, Values, and Careers, 1995).However, from an integrative advisingperspective, while these models offerrich intellectual meat, they are nearlyuseless in showing a client what likely

lies ahead.The same can be said for the various successful aging treatises such asJohn Wallis Rowe and Robert L. Kahn,1998, by that title; George Vaillant,M.D.s Aging Well, 2002, and AndrewWeil, M.D.s Healthy Aging, 2005.

However, Henry Simmons and JimFischer have developed a phenomenol-ogical model that serves the integrativeadvising process extremely well. As de-

tailed in A Journey Called Aging, 2007,this model of what the future is likely tohold as a matter of general reality isbased on phenomena, or events, thateach of us is likely to experience. Henryand I presented this map, sometimesreferred to as the Triptik, in ThrivingBeyond Midlife, 2005, along with illus-

9


12/24

trations that any adviser can draw on apad or a napkin or a whiteboard. Giventhat all models are wrong but someare useful this is a useful model of thelife course because it sets an easilygrasped context for decision-making,and provides a vocabulary for discussingthe future of any/every life. This modelis both much more specific than ourlanguage-deprived culture offers in rou-tine conversation and general enoughthat it has very high face validity.

In very short summary, The Map assertsthat life, at least from midlife on, con-sists of three stable periods and threetransitions. The duration of each foreach of us cannot be known in advance,and indeed not all of us will experienceall of the phases and stages, but forpurposes of looking ahead and prepar-ing for what might happen, or locatingsomeone who has just suffered a trag-edy, The Map serves well.

The first stable period is called extendedmiddle age (in Thriving Beyond Midlife),and it is characterized by a life style thatdoesnt look a lot different from middleage. The transition that interrupts it iscalled ready or not, because none of usis ever ready. The ready or not transi-tion is occasioned by a loss such asthe death of a spouse or the loss of acareer in which we were very heavilyinvested significant enough to requireus to redefine who we are vis--vis theworld. Thinking of it as an identity crisismight help; some people never get outof ready or not because they lack copingand adaptation skills that are easily

taught in advance, but harder to learn inthe throes of a crisis. That is followed byanother stable period that we call thenew me. This is the period of life duringwhich people live out their responses toready or not, and it can go on for dec-ades. It is broken by the like it or nottransition from independence to de-

pendence. Again, coping and adapta-tion skills, as well as a solid grounding inan embrace of the divine, will best pre-pare clients to thrive through this transi-tion and into the following stable period,which we call the rest of living. The finaltransition, dying, has been largely mar-ginalized by our culture, save for thehospice movement, but it is one of themost significant in any life and will de-termine to a greater extent than anyestate planning the legacy clients leavetheir survivors.

Requirement #2: A model for tak-ing into account all aspects of aclients l ife

As important as it is to know where weare going, it is equally important toknow that we have taken everythinginto account. As has been wisely said, itis not enough to know that you are go-ing to hunt large animals; it is at leastas important to know whether you aregoing after elephants or whales. You willneed different equipment.

The model of life that works for me and

my clients consists of seven domains:body, mind, heart, and soul; money,home, and structure. In each of thesedomains, somewhere on The Map, wecan predict events that could create acrisis if we encounter them unprepared,but will merely be transitions if antici-pated and resourced.

Based on the theory that how peoplespend their money reflects their truevalues, some have even done budgeting

based on this model, and found it veryeffective.

So, in the domain of the body, we knowthat the important categories are nutri-tion, exercise, and pleasure. Onedoesnt need to be an M.D. to inquireinto attitudes and habits in each ofthese areas, and to project future im-

10


13/24

pacts in all the other domains (espe-cially in the money and home domains)of a failure to take up best, or at leastbetter, practices.

The domain of the mind focuses on fu-

ture orientation, habits of mental exer-cise, attitude, and intentionality. Heartis where we look at the status of closeand intimate relationships, acquaintan-ces, willingness to enter into new rela-tionships, and habits of forgiveness ofself and others. The soul domain offersan area for looking into clients abilityand willingness to distinguish betweenthe experience of a one-to-one relation-ship with the divine and membership ina faith community, as well as their hab-its and practice of a daily exercise of at-one-ment such as lectio divina, center-ing prayer, or meditation.

In the domain of money, there are fourcategories: 1) development and main-tenance of post-retirement incomestreams; 2) planning to minimize thecost of, and strategizing how to pay for,acute medical care and chronic drugtherapies; 3) planning for a period offrailty (defined as the inability to func-tion independently in the world); and 4)legacy. In the domain of home we focuson functional requirements such as sizeand location; strategic considerationssuch as supportive housing in the eventof frailty or survivorship and the timingof planned moves; and financial impactsof home equity. In the domain of lifestructure, we focus on orientation totime and sources of community, iden-tity, and meaning.

Conclusion

Obviously, this is a very brief look at adefinition of integrative advising, as wellas some of the processes and tools thatwill be required for it to take a promi-nent place in the American culture.

There is much to be explored in every-thing mentioned here, and much re-search and development to be accom-plished. However, there are some toolsalready available that, while unlikely tobe the final word on anything, can giveus all a place to start.

Craig MacBean is a financial gerontolo-gist in private practice in Richmond, VA.He has expertise in retirement andfrailty planning and support; long-termcare insurance; annuities; life and healthinsurance and theology, ethics, andspirituality. He is the originator of theIntegrative Retirement Planning proc-ess, a structured approach to supportingpeople in flourishing from midlifethrough dying in all seven domains ofliving (body, mind, heart, and soul;money, home, and structure). Beforegoing to seminary in 1996, Craig wasthe Chief Marketing Officer of two lifeinsurance companies and a health in-surance company.

He is the author ofThriving Beyond Mid-life and an accomplished writer, speak-er, and educator on topics that spanliving from midlife on. Craig is the sen-ior Consulting Editor of the two-volumeset, The Encyclopedia of Retirement andFinance, and has taught Aging and Hu-man Values as adjunct faculty in theMasters program in Gerontology of theSchool of Allied Health Professions at Virginia Commonwealth University(VCU) for four years. He served sevenyears on the Board of Directors of theNational Council on Aging (NCOA).

Craig is a 1967 graduate of WesleyanUniversity, Middletown, CT and a 2004graduate of Union Theological Seminary,Richmond, VA, with an MA in theology.

11


14/24

RRReeetttiiirrreeemmmeeennntttfffooorrrCCCaaarrreeeeeerrrWWWooommmeeennn::: IIItttsssMMMooorrreeettthhhaaannnMMMooonnneeeyyy

by Helen Dennis and Bernice Bratter

Women have money. And Boomerwomen have most of it. They are thefirst generation in which the majorityhave been (or are in) the work force,with 63 percent working outside thehome. They have made decisions a-bout how to earn and spend theirmoney, and often seek counsel onways to invest it.

Professional women in particular haveincome and assets and therefore are a

target market for the financial servicesindustry. In addition to knowing theirfinancial needs, it is important for fi-nancial specialists to understand ca-reer womens concerns that arent re-flected in a spreadsheet. Respondingto these concerns will provide a valueadded to traditional services and acompetitive edge in developing rele-vant and effective financial plans.

Now, for the first time in history, mil-

lions of highly effective career womenface retirement. They are educated,skilled and successful. With hard workthey achieved rewards beyond money.They have achieved visibility, respect,status, influence, and have made adifference.

These women span two generations.The first is the generation of womenborn between 1925 and 1945. Oftenreferred to as the Silent Generation,

they are the first cohort to live beforeand after the launch of the WomensMovement. They are the first andlargest generation of women to definethemselves by their work. And be-cause they are the first, they have fewrole models for retirement.

According to Nan Bauer-Maglin and

Alice Radosh, co-editors ofWomenConfronting Retirement, we have a new population of women who faceretirement and are unsure of theirworth without their job.1 This uncer-tainty has become a driver to create aretirement model that takes into ac-count their unique connection to workand values, preferred lifestyles, idealrelationships, and what is important tothem at their life stage.

These women were among the mostprominent feminists leading theWomens Movement. In the 1960sBetty Freidan, in her book The Femi-nine Mystique, described a populationof women who felt trapped and invisi-ble. Her first chapter entitled TheProblem That Has No Name, de-scribed womens feelings as emp-tyincompleteas though I dont ex-ist.2 You wake up in the morningand there is nothing to look forwardto.3 The women were asking, Is thisall?4

These same women are now ap-proaching retirement or are alreadyretired. They are asking similar ques-tions. Is this all there is? What doI do now that I am retired? Who amI without my business card? What isproductivityanyway? What if vol-unteering isnt for me?

1Bauer-Maglin, Nan and Radosh, Alice, WomenConfronting Retirement (New Brunswick: Rut-gers University Press, 2003), p. 5.2Friedan, Betty, The Feminine Mystique (NewYork: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001`), p. 20.3Ibid., p. 22.4Ibid., p. 15.

12


15/24

Helen Dennis, a nationally recognized expert on issues of aging, employment andretirement, has received awards for her university teaching and contributions to thefield of aging. Editor of two books, popular speaker, and weekly columnist, she hashelped more than ten thousand employees prepare for their retirement. Her expertise

is sought by employers, national publications like the Wall Street Journal and suchnetwork news program as ABCs Primetime.

Bernice Bratter is a licensed marriage and family therapist and an advocate for bothwomen and the aging. In recognition of her leadership in the non-profit arena, shehas received numerous awards, including an honorary doctor of law degree from Pep-perdine University. She has been featured on 60 Minutes, 20/20, and Hour Magazine.

Bratter and Dennis are co-authors of the new bookProject R enewment: The FirstRetirement Model for Career Women (Scribner 2008). It began in 1999 whenBratter retired as executive director of the Los Angeles Womens Foundation. Shecalled Helen Dennis, her longtime colleague with a question: Has anything been doneabout career women who are facing retirement? The answer was no. After a four-

hour lunch, they decided there was a lot to discuss about issues facing women wholove their work, are considering retirement and want to figure out what is next.

They invited to dinner some friends and friends of friends who were successful careerwomen. All realized they had given little thought to their retirement. At that dinnermeeting, Project Renewment was born.

Today 12 groups in Southern California gather regularly to learn from one another asthey create their future. More groups are forming.

The Project Renewment book reflects the knowledge and experience of Bratter andDennis and the insight, passion and wisdom from the Project Renewment women.

Similar questions are raised by the

Boomers, the largest cohort in history 78 million born between 1946 and1964. Forty million are women. Ofthese women, nearly one in fourgraduated from college.5 Over one-third works in management, profes-sions and related occupations.6About ten million work in occupationsthat are likely to provide rewards be-yond money.7

As they approach a new life stage of

retirement, their focus has movedfrom success to significance, many

5Daily, Nancy, When Baby Boom Women RetireWestport: Praeger, 2000), p.7.6 U.S. Department of Labor Womens BureauQuick Stats 2005, http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm.7Daily, op.cit., p.57.

hoping to recapture their youthful ide-

alism and belief once again that a sin-gle individual can create change in theworld. In that shift, the older or lead-ing edge Boomers born between 1946and 1955 are facing retirement con-cerns similar to the generation thatprecedes them the Silent genera-tion.

Financial security is fundamental inmaking the retirement decision, butmoney is only part of the story. Re-

tirement for the Silents and theBoomers is a new life stage that againraises questions about purpose, sig-nificance and identity in life. For ca-reer women accustomed to life in thefast lane, the uncertainties can be un-settling. Busyness is not sufficient.Fulfillment, growth, joy, challenge,

13


16/24

and satisfaction mean more than hav-ing a full calendar.

Is the retirement of women differentfrom men? Why the need for a newmodel? Traditional (male) retirement

typically is based on finances, an em-phasis that is critical but not sufficientfor women. Relationships, meaning oflife, and identity are equally importantand often overlooked. Women seemopen to discussing some of these non-financial issues, but few occasions areavailable to them.8

The timing of retirement for womenoften is different from that of men be-cause of womens work history.

Women typically have moved in andout of the labor force to care for chil-dren while men have experienced amore continuous pattern of employ-ment. Professional women may wantto delay their retirement because theyentered the workforce later than menand may view retirement as an im-posed interruption to their work.9

Additionally, compared to men,womens retirement decisions are

generally more influenced by familyroles and commitment. More womenare care providers, a role and respon-sibility that often affects their retire-ment decision.10

Enter Project Renewment, a modelof life planning for career women whoare contemplating or actually leavingthe workplace. In 1999 we re-sponded to the need of these womenby co-founding Project Renewment.

Renewment is a word we made up by

8Based on the experience of Helen Dennis, whohas worked with more than ten thousand em-ployees preparing for the nonfinancial aspects oftheir retirement.9Price, Christine, Women and Retirement: Re-linquishing Professional Identity, Journal of Ag-ing Studies14, no. 1 (2002), p. 83.10Bauer-Maglin, Nan and Radosh, op.cit., p. 6.

combining retirement with renewal.Retirement often has negative conno-tations while Renewment reflects posi-tive change and enlightenment. Itsuggests rebirth, choices, vitality, op-portunity and personal growth. It im-plies that decisions about the nextchapter of life can be intentionalrather than defined by the needs andexpectations of others.

Because women tend to turn to eachother when searching for new ideas,answers and direction, Project Re-newment established a process thatbrings women together in smallgroups to discuss the most relevantissues of their lives. These groupsprovide a non-judgmental, supportiveand creative environment for changeand growth.

One can implement the concept ofRenewment without establishing agroup. The 38 topics outlined in Pro-ject Renewment: The First RetirementModel for Career Women (Scribner2008),are important subjects for pri-vate contemplation, as well as groupdiscussion. Examples, as demonstra-ted by essay titles, include: Who am IWithout My Business Card? Anti- Aging or Pro-aging? Back to theKitchen, Passion: Its More Than aFruit, The Queen of Multi-Tasking isTaking a Break, What if He RetiresFirst? The Illusion of Freedom, and A Sorority House, Not a NursingHome.

The impact of Project Renewment hasbeen significant. Here are some

comments from participants:

Project Renewment has opened mymind to important issues that I cannow face in a more thoughtful waythan I did before.

The group gives me an opportunityto test ideas and emotions which I

14


17/24


18/24

UAAADDDVVVOOOCCCAAACCCYYY

GGGuuuaaarrrdddiiinnngggFFFaaammmiiilllyyySSSeeecccuuurrriiitttyyy

By Joe Zedalis

Troubling, Turbulent Times

For the first time in the 21st century,the American family is economically un-der siege. These events are unprece-dented. They are having a deep finan-cial impact on family security in Americaand, by extension, around the world

There are no immediate signs of signifi-cant relief as we approach mid-2008,and some experts project that the cur-

rent downturn will be long-lasting. Theripple effect from the mortgage melt-down will continue. As oil prices esca-late the Dollar shall still slide downward.

When you apply zooming inflation ratesto today's Federal Reserve-driven lowinterest rates, the real (after inflation)rate of return on personal savings isnow negative. The cost of living is sky-rocketing. The Fed has recently notedthat increases in commodity prices

have investors concerned about swellinginflation, the most insidious enemy ofcapitalism.1 Can we expect a changeof course in monetary policy soonerthan later?

As a nation with a negative savings rate,we are seeing a pattern of emergingfamily financial stress. Its obvious:most have not financially prepared fortheir future and will not be able toweather this perfect storm. Young fami-

lies with children are the largest demo-graphic group filing for bankruptcy. Fi-nancial stress is the leading cause ofdivorce, and employers report it as themajor cause of alcoholism and drug

1See Alex Peacocke, Feds Fisher sees FrightfulStorm Brewing, Investment News, May 29,2008.

abuse in the workplace.

Employees have seen sizable shrinkagein their 401(k)s, and most investorshave just experienced portfolio shock inthe first quarter. Ten, twenty percent ormore in losses are the norm, and theyprovide an unexpected bump, for somea sinkhole, on the road toward retire-ment. This is no surprise, given themanner in which most consumers shapetheir portfoliosin effect, by flipping a

coin!

The American family journey toward re-tirement is loaded with risk: marketswings, investment scams, sub-primemortgage chaos, a harvest of equityconfusion, equity-indexed and variableannuity suitability problems, living trustscams, longevity risks, rising health careexpenditures, tax risk, identity theft, andpredators eager and well-trained toseparate us from our assets.

Weak financial literacy limits our abilityto respond constructively to these chal-lenges. American families seldom talkabout money, seldom plan, and, as aresult, make poor financial decisions ornone at all. Without informed decision-making many become swayed by badactors and exhibit very little understand-ing of the implications of what they aredoing financially.

Are We Part of the Problem or theSolution?

More disturbing, these patterns drivemore government regulatory action,which historically only further compli-cates an already complex process. Thecompetent, professional advisor is un-

16


19/24

fortunately drawn into the negative pub-licity associated with a few bad apples.

With 70 million baby boomers reachingretirement, the challenge is clear: finan-cial service professionals must acceler-

ate their personal development in orderto help guard family security! Our cli-ents (and the community) rely on us tofulfill their needs with competency andintegrity, and to perform ethically. Theyhave no choice but to trust us. So wemust honor that trust with ethicalcoaching and bring comprehensiveplanning services to their table ortheyll be swayed by scam artists and bythe weak, frequently misguided, andlimited information they receive fromthe government and the media.

We can no longer sit on the economicsidelines and be content with managingisolated silos of expertise, when weneed to serve the entire financial spec-trum of need, comprehensively. Whoelse, but the family planner/coach/advi-sor, will the public turn to for critical an-swers and guidance to Guard FamilySecurity today, tomorrow and beyond?

This fuller spectrum of expertise isneeded to help our clients, and thecommunity at large to:

1. Grasp financial literacy basics

2. Keep debt in check

3. Save money regularly

4. Perceive life insurance as a must

5. Make home ownership a priority

6. Realize that a simple investment

strategy often works best7. Plan for childrens college education

8. Understand employee benefits

9. Make the tax laws work for the cli-ent

10. Get trusted help for Special Needs

Planning, Estate and Legacy Plan-ning, and on-going Family Coach-ing.

The National Financial Education Asso-ciation (NFEA), a 501(c)(3) educational

not-for-profit headquartered in FallsChurch, Virginia, has been coachingfamilies in these matters since 1997.While doing so, were continually a-mazed with the shortcomings of finan-cial service professionals in deliveringcomprehensive services to their clients.Most only focus on a particular corner ofthe financial puzzle and abdicate thebalance of critical planning needs toothers. That results in conflicting andcounter-productive messages frommany resources to the normal Americanfamily struggling to understand how tobuild a solid retirement and insure thattheir nest egg will last especially intodays troubled, turbulent economictimes.

The High Cost of Family Insecurity

A recent report about the taxpayer costsof divorce and unwed childbearing

states: family fragmentation costs Am-erican taxpayers at least $112 billiondollars/year. These costs are recurring that is, they are incurred each and everyyearmeaning that the decline of mar-riage will cost American taxpayers morethan $1 trillion dollars over a decade.2 And this report utilizes conservative as-sumptions.

These costs are due to increased tax-payer expenditures for antipoverty,

criminal justice and school nutrition pro-grams, and through lower levels oftaxes paid by individuals whose adultproductivity is negatively influenced by

2 Benjamin Scafidi, The Taxpayer Costs of Di-vorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Esti-mates for the Nation and All Fifty States, TheInstitute for American Values.

17


20/24

growing up in poverty caused by familyfragmentation.

Conversely, even small increases instable marriage rates would result invery large returns to taxpayersa mere

1% reduction in rates of family frag-mentation would save taxpayers $1.12billion annually.

A closer look reveals that between 1970and 2005, the proportion of children liv-ing with two married parents droppedfrom 85% to 68%. About three-quarters of children living with a singleparent live with a single mother.

Divorce and unwed childbearing createsubstantial public costs: higher rates of

crime, drug abuse, education failure,chronic illness, child abuse, domesticviolence, and povertyand bring withthem higher taxpayer costs in diverseforms: more welfare expenditure; in-creased remedial and special educationexpenses; higher day-care subsidies;additional child-support collection costs;a range of increased direct court ad-ministration costs incurred in regulatingpost-divorce or unwed families; higher

foster care and child protection services;increased Medicaid and Medicare costs;increasingly expensive and harsh crime-control measures to compensate forformerly private regulation of adolescentand young-adult behaviors; and manyother similar costs.

Perhaps its time to address this matterwith more comprehensive single-parentplanning. For some, we may even haveto provide itpro bono. How shall we be-

gin to curb these patterns without betterstrategies?

Thinking About Tomorrow

America is experiencing a longevity re-volution were simply living longer.That in itself brings with it new chal-

lenges to family security. As a result,some suggest that its time for people toleave mainstream living arrangementsand explore the uncharted terrain of lifein an intentional community setting,rather that an institutional setting. Thechallenge: where will we live, how willwe pay for it, how will we livein a se-cure family environment?

As Craig MacBean and Henry Simmonsnote, Those of us born since the mid-1940s will have a unique experiencewith what we call retirementone un-paralleled in human history. As a group,were going to live longer than anyknown population in human history atthe same time our culture, which prizesproductivity, has relegated us to roles ofconsumption and leisure for about athird of our lives. While this will causeus all to face greater financial and familychallenges than we have been trainedfor, regardless of our roots or currentstation in life, it will also ultimately con-vey us all toward a common ending.3

Thus, how will we ever thrive beyondmidlife if we dont understand what itsall about, nor cant, nor wont, at leastbegin to plan for it?

Is There a Core Problem?

These patterns suggest that the lack offinancial literacy is the major character-istic fueling poor financial decisions.Some Americans, because of their igno-rance, will continue their slide towardpoverty. Without even a basic financialgrounding, these patterns suggest more

will remain consumers rather than in-vestors. As consumers, families journeytoward more dependence rather thanindependence. Ultimately, this becomesunfair to other families who, with an

3E. Craig MacBean and Henry C. Simmons, Thriv-ing Beyond Midlife, 2006.

18


21/24

investor mindset, are planning their fu-ture, and positioning themselves to havemore impact on tomorrow.

marriage) we have all been called toserve. Today, your clients are feelingthe pinch and there are few places tohide. Families, neighborhoods, commu-nities and our nation can improve theirfinancial security, lifestyles and legacy.This can be accomplished if, collectively,we deliver more effective and morecomprehensive planning today. Theirfuture (and ultimately Americas future)shall be shaped by how we respond.Working together, we must reach Amer-ica with a blueprint to help thememerge from insecurity to success. Onlythen will we see family security patternsshift from failure to freedom.

Some would suggest that this con-sumer-based slide toward poverty is in-

dicative of becoming more distant fromaverage American values. Could an ig-norant America become an extinctAmerica?

Example: A recent report from the Gov-ernment Accounting Office (GAO) pointsto $50 trillion of unfunded mandateslooming for Medicare and Medicaid.4This report, produced by the Comptrol-ler of Currency, suggests that Americacan no longer afford these entitlement

programs as currently designed (P.S.: atrillion has 12 zeroes). The report fur-ther suggests that most Americans areignorant of this risk. Thus, reshapingthese programs could have far-reachingconsequences to family security. Howthen do we factor this impact into ourfuture planning? Should we prepare formore personally-funded care or preparefor higher taxes to keep these benefitsflowing to the additional 70 million babyboomers now entering these programs?

Joe Zedalis, Freedom Joe, is SeniorResearch Director at the National Finan-cial Education Association (NFEA), and aFamily Edviser in Bellevue, Washington.The unfavorable developments he de-scribes here, and effective ways forfamilies to respond to them, are criti-cally detailed in a special BreakthroughReport: Guarding Family Security,available from NFEA at:http://www.nfea.org/.

With improved financial literacy andcoaching Americans can make more in-formed decisions about their future andapply creative strategies toward reach-ing their family security objectives.

The 21st Century Challenge

What will happen to our children? Arewe unknowingly sending them down a

similar journeyunprepared? Are wedeveloping more consumers or moreinvestors?

As coaching professionals (in thebroader sense, i.e. financial, business,

4 David M. Walker, Americas Fiscal Future: ACall for Citizen Involvement, available at:http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d07613cg.pdf.

19
http://www.nfea.org/http://www.nfea.org/


22/24

RRReeessseeeaaarrrccchhhNNNooottteeesss

Please contribute to this column by sending us notices or links for research related to aging,advising, demographics, financial decision-making, retiree attitudes or lifestyles, death and dying,

or any of the numerous other topics of broad interest to financial and life planners.

NNNeeeuuurrrooosssccciiieeennnccceeeaaannndddAAAgggiiinnnggg

Researchers at Harvards Center forBrain Research, using brain scan datacollected at Washington University in St.Louis, discovered a difference in brainactivity between younger people andmany, but not all, older people. Youngbrains show synchronization betweennetworks in the brain that activatewhen one is thinking about past, future,or hypothetical activities, and brain net-works that activate when we thinkabout specific tasks. As we age, someof us lose this synchronization entirely,while others do not, or lose it only inpart. Those whose brain networks beststay in sync have stronger memory andreasoning skills.

A brief summary of this research ap-pears in the May-June issue ofHarvard

Magazine. The full report is in Neuron,December 24, 2007.http://www.neuron.org/content/issue?volume=5

6&issue=5

Stacey E. Whitbourne, Shevaun D. Neu-pert, and Margie E. Lachman came upwith two interesting results in theirstudy, Daily Physical Activity: Relationto Everyday Memory in Adulthood, asreported in the Journal of Applied Ger-ontology for June 2008. First, they didnot find a difference in memory lapsesamong younger, middle-aged, and olderadults. Second, among older adults,exercise tended to improve memory,both the day of the exercise and theday after. An abstract can be found at:

http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/

331

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agingheld hearings on May 14 on The Futureof Alzheimer's: Breakthroughs and Chal-lenges. The testimony of Rudi Tanzi ofthe Massachusetts General Institute forNeurodegenerative Diseases, Sandra

Day OConnor (whose husband suffersfrom Alzheimers), and other witnessesis available both as text and as a web-cast. The landing page is:http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=2

97771#

SSSoooccciiiooolllooogggyyyaaannndddDDDeeemmmooogggrrraaappphhhiiicccsss

A research team from the University ofChicago has produced a report called The Social Connectedness of OlderAdults: A National Profile. The authorsfind, consistent with previous research,that older Americans do show somesigns of isolation: their networks aresmaller and their ties become more dis-tant. Yet this is not the whole story.Their results demonstrate that age in-creases the frequency of socializing withneighbors, religious participation, andvolunteering. In addition, some later-life transitions, such as retirement and

bereavement, may prompt greater con-nectedness. The authors conclude thattheir findings are inconsistent with theview that old age has a universal nega-tive influence on social connectedness.

Their article appears in the AmericanSociological Reviewfor April. Note thatthis same issue contains the widely

20
http://www.neuron.org/content/issue?volume=56&issue=5http://www.neuron.org/content/issue?volume=56&issue=5http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/331http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/331http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=297771http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=297771http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=297771http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=297771http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=297771http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/331http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/331http://www.neuron.org/content/issue?volume=56&issue=5http://www.neuron.org/content/issue?volume=56&issue=5


23/24

publicized report by Yang Yang on dif-ferences in happiness by age groups,which suggested that older Americanstend to be happier than younger ones.http://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/april08abs.h

tml

Sheila R. Zedlewski and Barbara Butricaargue, in an Urban Institute paper, thatthe decline in elder poverty rates is insome measure an artifact of our cur-rent, inadequate way of defining andmeasuring poverty, and that, as the ti-tle of their report says, More Older Americans are Poor than the OfficialMeasure Suggests. The full report is

to be found at the Urban Institute web-site. The abstract is available at:http://www.urban.org/publications/411670.html

HHHeeeaaalllttthhh,,, MMMeeedddiiiccciiinnneee,,, aaannnddd EEEllldddeeerrrCCCaaarrreee

David J. Gross et al have reported forthe AARP Public Policy Institute thatgeneric drug prices continue to fall.Prices for the 185 drugs most used byseniors fell 9.6% in 2007, followingsmaller decreases in each of the pre-ceding three years.

Their 40-page report is titled: Trendsin Manufacturer Prices of Generic Pre-scription Drugs Used by Medicare Bene-ficiaries, and it is available on theAARP website.http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/health/2008_08_g

eneric_q407.pdf

The title of this May 9, 2008 report by

the U.S. General Accounting Office forthe Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices (CMS) says it all: FederalMonitoring Surveys Demonstrate Con-tinued Understatement of Serious CareProblems and CMS Oversight Weak-nesses. The full report is 51 pages; anabstract can be found at:

http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptn

o=GAO-08-517

On May 15, ten expert witnesses testi-fied before the U.S. House Committee

on Energy and Commerce, on the sub- ject: In the Hands of Strangers: AreNursing Home Safeguards Working?The printed transcript is not availableyet (at last check), but you can find thearchived webcast at:http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/11

0-oi-hrg.051508.nursinghomes.shtml

Candace L. Kemp, noting that marriedcouples sharing assisted living is likely

to be a growing phenomenon, reportsthe results of a study of 20 such cou-ples in Negotiating Transitions in LaterLife: Married Couples in Assisted Liv-ing, Journal of Applied Gerontology,June 2008. An abstract is available at:

http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/

231

LLLiiivvviiinnngggAAArrrrrraaannngggeeemmmeeennntttsss

Julie L. Locher et alstudied 230 home-bound adults with an average age of79.1. They found that 70% of themwere under-eating. The problem wasmore common among men, amongpeople receiving little or no outsidecare, among those who had returnedhome from hospitalization, and thosewith a high body-mass index. Theirstudy, A Multidimensional Approach toUnderstanding Under-Eating in Home-

bound Older Adults: The Importance ofSocial Factors appears in the April2008 issue of The Gerontologist. Theabstract is located at:http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/

content/abstract/48/2/223MMMooonnneeeyyyMMMaaannnaaagggeeemmmeeennntttfffooorrrRRReeetttiiirrreeeeeesss

Watson Wyatts analysis of Target Date

21
http://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/april08abs.htmlhttp://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/april08abs.htmlhttp://www.urban.org/publications/411670.htmlhttp://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/health/2008_08_generic_q407.pdfhttp://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/health/2008_08_generic_q407.pdfhttp://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-08-517http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-08-517http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.051508.nursinghomes.shtmlhttp://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.051508.nursinghomes.shtmlhttp://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/231http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/231http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/223http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/223http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/223http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/223http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/231http://jag.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/3/231http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.051508.nursinghomes.shtmlhttp://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.051508.nursinghomes.shtmlhttp://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.051508.nursinghomes.shtmlhttp://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-08-517http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-08-517http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/health/2008_08_generic_q407.pdfhttp://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/health/2008_08_generic_q407.pdfhttp://www.urban.org/publications/411670.htmlhttp://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/april08abs.htmlhttp://www2.asanet.org/journals/asr/april08abs.html


24/24

and Lifestyle funds is supportive ofthese concepts, but observes that caremust be exercised in using them.Funds that appear identical from theoutside may have very different invest-ment strategies and outcomes, andsome of them may incorporate morerisk than retirees want. Their study,dated September 2006, is now availablein full on their website (free registrationrequired). Titled Target-Date Retire-ment Funds: A Lifelong Investment So-lution for Defined Contribution Plans, itcan be found at:http://www.watsonwyatt.com/research/deliv-

erPDF.asp?catalog=WITD_11_2006&r=x.pdf

David A. Love, Michael G. Palumbo, andPaul A. Smith compare retiree spendingpatterns with financial assets and in-come in their paper, The Trajectory ofWealth in Retirement. They find thatfinancial resources decline more slowlythan remaining life expectancy, so thatrelative to the probable span of theirremaining lives, older people tend tobecome wealthier over time. They pro-mote a planning approach that takes

into account uncertain lifespans, uncer-tain medical costs, and intended be-quests. Their paper is available throughthe Boston College Center for Retire-ment Research, at:http://crr.bc.edu/working_papers/the_trajectory_

of_wealth_in_retirement_.html

SSSpppiiirrriiitttuuuaaallliiitttyyy

Terrence D. Hill of the University of Mi-

ami has published a brief article, Reli-gious Involvement and Healthy Cogni-tive Aging: Patterns, Explanations, andFuture Directions in the Journal of Ger-ontology: Medical Sciences, May 2008.

W. Jack Rejeski of Wake Forest Univer-sity discusses the use of the Buddhist

practice of mindfulness in the treatmentof older adults. He discusses howmindfulness can be used to promotephysical activity, and vice versa. Hisarticle, Mindfulness: Reconnecting theBody and Mind in Geriatric Medicine andGerontology appears in the April 2008issue of The Gerontologist. The ab-stract is at:http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/

content/abstract/48/2/135DDDeeeaaattthhhaaannndddDDDyyyiiinnnggg

C. Nathan DeWall and Roy F. Baumeis-ter reported on a study they conductedon awareness of death, in the Novem-ber 2007 issue ofPsychological Science.The study was performed with under-

graduates, but may be applicable totheir elders. It suggests that consciousawareness of ones own mortality maybe compensated for in the brain by thenatural generation of cheerier thoughts. An abstract of their article, From Ter-ror to Joy: Automatic Tuning to Positive Affective Information Following Mortal-ity Salience, is located at:http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/in

dex.cfm?journal=ps&content=ps/18_11&CFID=

15799374&CFTOKEN=7c012e5b39deab9d-

26DA9398-E0E9-1F35-AF64BEEF9FA28797
http://crr.bc.edu/working_papers/the_trajectory_of_wealth_in_retirement_.htmlhttp://crr.bc.edu/working_papers/the_trajectory_of_wealth_in_retirement_.htmlhttp://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/135http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/135http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/135http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/2/135http://crr.bc.edu/working_papers/the_trajectory_of_wealth_in_retirement_.htmlhttp://crr.bc.edu/working_papers/the_trajectory_of_wealth_in_retirement_.html

integrative adviser no 0101

Documents