Interest in income planning and long term care planning among working adults appears to be on the rise. The signs are incremental, but unmistakable.
What are those signs?
1) In the income planning arena, more working age adults are showing interest in retirement funding. For example, U.S. workers surveyed in 2007 by AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, New York , came in first in terms of the importance they place on the financial situation of their retirement compared to workers in 10 other countries. They gave this aspect of life an 8.7 importance rating, compared with a world average of 8.1. The next most retirement-minded participants, the Italians, gave retirement financial situation an 8.6 rating. (See our article on this here )
2) Financial advisors are starting to align with this trend. For example, in this months' feature article by Jim Connolly (How prepared are advisors to meet the income planning challenge?), Joshua Itzoe, a Towson, Md. certified financial planner, points out that that his firm starts on the front end with clients, talking with them far enough in advance to prepare them for the changes they will face in retirement. Meanwhile, 43% of readers responding to our December 2007 Income Planning poll said they think advisors are ready, in a limited fashion, to help clients make the change to receiving income from annuities once they retire.
3) The LTC industry reports increasing success in making LTC insurance sales to people younger than age 60. The industry had started trying to do this as early as the 2000s, but the numbers didn't stack up that way until 2007. That's when the American Association of Long Term Care Insurance, Westlake Village, Calif., reported, in November, that the average age of Americans buying individual LTC policies now appears to be 58. By comparison, the average age in 2000 was 67, says the association. (See our article on this here)
