Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor

Retirement Planning > Saving for Retirement

Boomers lead small business boom

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

According to a recent client survey by Guidant Financial Group, 80 percent of new small business clients are between the ages of 40-60.

“In the past 12 months, many baby boomers have been downsized and most have suffered huge losses in their retirement savings,” explains David Nilssen, co-founder of Guidant Financial Group. “The economic woes have wiped out trillions of dollars in retirement savings and many excellent workers have been downsized. This environment is providing boomers a lot of motivation to evaluate other options and pursue things such as small business ownership.”

Of these small business and franchise owners, nearly one out of four new business owners are investing $100K-$150K of their own retirement funds into a new business.

“These people are making a substantial and courageous personal investment of retirement funds into a small business,” says Nilssen. “Like most entrepreneurs, they are demonstrating a strong belief in themselves and feel that a small business provides greater opportunities than the stock market.

With this particular investment size, coupled with this particular age range, there is not much time to make up any large losses that might incur, but that does not seem to deter many people, according to the survey. Indicating a strong optimism for their outcome, over 50 percent of new business owners are expecting year-over-year growth in 2009.

“While the economy is shrinking, our clients are opening businesses and creating new American jobs,” adds Nilssen.


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.