"NORC" was not an acronym I was familiar with until I heard David Kittredge's presentation at the recent NAFA Annuity Marketing Expo in Las Vegas.
Kittredge, senior vice president, Product and Service Retirement Income Security Ventures for Lincoln Financial Group, spoke about "The Income Revolution: Where Your Next Clients Will Come From." The information he provided made me aware that the common stereotype of retirees moving to warmer climates to live out their golden years does not happen as much as I thought. And honestly, how many of the 78 million baby boomers approaching retirement can Florida and Arizona handle?
With older boomers beginning to retire, we are actually on our way to becoming "a nation of Floridas," as Kittredge put it. There are more retirees everywhere these days, and this is a trend predicted to continue in a big way for decades to come.
Instead of taking flight to warmer climes, more and more retirees seem to be interested in "aging in place." They don't want to leave their friends, communities, and often living in close proximity to their grown children and grandchildren. The result of this is a dramatic increase in NORCs – Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities. According to www.SeniorResource.com, approximately 70 percent of seniors spend the rest of their life in the place where they lived at the time of their 65th birthday.
Kittredge mentioned Beacon Hill Village in Boston as a prime example. Organized in 2002 by local residents who wanted to stay in their homes as they approached their 70s and 80s instead of moving to traditional retirement communities, Beacon Hill Village has shown the way for many other NORCs across the country.
