How Boomers Will Confront, Impact & Adapt to the Next 20 Years

Business Editors/Insurance Writers

WESTPORT, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 20, 2008--Baby Boomers may not recognize themselves and their surroundings by the year 2028 as a result of an evolving global environment and marketplace. How they adapt and mitigate risk as we move into the future is the subject of a new project by the Institute for the Future done in conjunction with the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

Developed through ethnographic profiling of a diverse group of those born between 1946 and 1964, Boomers: The Next 20 Years, Ecologies of Risk, paints an extraordinary new picture of this much-studied demographic as they confront a longer lifespan, the widest rich-poor gap in recent generations, a global energy shortage, new economic realities and a Web-based infrastructure. The conclusion: boomers will, as they have in the past, be resourceful and self-reliant, forming economic, health and social collectives – and families of choice – to adapt to the future.

“With the world focused on the collapse of financial markets, it is especially important to understand the big picture that boomers face over the coming decades,” said Kathi Vian, ten-year forecast director for the Institute for the Future. “They have crafted complex ecologies of risks and resources throughout their adulthood, and they may well manage those ecologies with surprising skill – and sometimes surprising innovations – as they age.”

According to Boomers: The Next 20 Years, Ecologies of Risk, boomers will distribute the stress and burden of managing risk across networks of people, some based on kinship and others on affinity or interest. They will plan more, work longer and become more entrepreneurial. They will also take part in peer-to-peer networks of people that will perform some of the financial services that banks and other financial institutions perform today.

Ecologies of Risk projects the following aspects of the boomers’ lives:

Family: New Relationships, New Responsibilities – Emerging patterns of marriage, remarriage and childbearing, including alternative family arrangements, will change the way we currently view family. Families will be “chosen,” not just inherited. There will be peer caretaking and social care matching services. Boomers will be challenged by greater distance between family members and greater responsibility for the financial well-being of children and grandchildren, contributing to slowed personal wealth accumulation.
Global Economy: More Competition, More Collaboration – Boomers will be the first generation to age in a truly global economy, giving them access to more learning resources, new ways to collaborate, financial products from around the world and healthcare abroad, dubbed “medical tourism.”
Community: Gaps and Gains – Boomers will use new ways to build communities to close the gap created by decreased mobility, polarization, social fragmentation and health challenges. Like their younger counterparts they will participate in online social networks, virtual retirement communities and community blogging. They will be challenged by elder abuse, anti-boomer backlash and ageist zoning laws.
Environments: Unsustainable Pasts, Sustainable Aging – A degradation of the environment will bring risks from new diseases and fewer sustainable food and energy sources. These challenges will bring food and energy collectives, do-it-yourself (DIY) products and green technology.
Personal: Health and Identity – Boomers will live longer, but will suffer from new chronic diseases and widespread depression from aging, illness and other concerns. They will manage their health differently with biometrics and online tools that will challenge privacy, but will allow them to share and benefit from new information found on all parts of the globe.
Institutions: Dissatisfaction, Distrust, Reinvention – An erosion of the trust people have had in institutions will bring new banking/investment vehicles, peer-to-peer loans and new structures to manage new capitals. Financial security will be threatened by diminished government and employer safety nets and low personal savings.

“Faced with increasing longevity and the need to have lifetime income, boomers will likely reset their compasses,” said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “An adaptive, disciplined and flexible self is the best asset that they can bring to the future.”

Boomers: The Next 20 Years, Ecologies of Risk, is a three-phased project of how baby boomers will age over the coming decades. The first phase mapped boomers’ 20-year horizon, identifying seven big stories that will shape their future (the boomer map). The second phase consisted of interviews with boomers to define the 10 “Action Types” that help us understand how different boomers will make different choices as they confront the challenges of the future. The final phase, “Ecologies of Risk,” uses these insights to create focused forecasts of the boomers’ world. Six organizations, including major corporations and AARP, were involved in the project.

The Institute for the Future

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent nonprofit research group. The IFTF works with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future. For more information about the IFTF visit, www.iftf.org.

MetLife Mature Market Institute®

Established in 1997, the Mature Market Institute (MMI) is MetLife’s center on aging and the 50+ market. MMI’s groundbreaking research, gerontology expertise, national partnerships and educational materials work to expand the knowledge and choices for those in, approaching or caring for those in the mature market.

MMI supports MetLife’s long-standing commitment to identifying emerging issues and innovative solutions for the challenges of life. MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), is celebrating 140 years and is a leading provider of insurance and financial services to individual and institutional customers.

For more information about the MetLife Mature Market Institute, please visit: www.maturemarketinstitute.com.

To download a copy of Boomers: The Next 20 Years, Ecologies of Risk and the Boomer map,visit www.maturemarketinstitute.com under “What’s New.” You may also write to request a copy from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, 57 Greens Farms Road, Westport, CT 06880. Other documents are available at: www.iftf.org.