Downturn bringing boomers back to financial planning

The biggest setback for boomers, according to research, has been neglectful financial planning because they don’t fully understand the value and are embarrassed they haven’t accumulated more assets, thus ignoring the problem. But it seems the crisis is bringing boomers back to reality – good news for financial planners. Seventy-three percent of advisors say the downturn has brought their boomer clients’ focus back on financial planning, according to the Partnership for Retirement Education and Planning (PREP).

The economic downturn has no doubt been hardest on the boomer generation. In fact, 77 percent of financial service professionals say no other generation is taking the blow quite as hard as this one.

“The current economic downturn has hit at a bad time for people who are in their late 50s or early 60s and haven’t prepared for the future,” says Philip E. Harriman, CLU, ChFC, past president of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) and contributing writer for Senior Market Advisor. “With a simultaneous strain on employment, home values and investments, these Boomers are being hit harder now than generations older or younger. If there is a silver lining in this dark cloud, perhaps this is a wake-up call for Boomers to get busy managing their financial well-being.”