The turning 65 transition is one of those topics that really gets us excited about everything that has to do with financial planning and the capacity to apply financial tools and models to help individuals confront issues and problems that are associated with complex financial situations that arrive at different points in their lifetime and where plenty of knowledge and guidance is needed in order to make sure that you can utilize the right strategy to achieve your objectives.

The turning 65 transition is a very important period of time in everybody’s life where deterministic changes will happen and significant decisions need to be made. And the reason for that is twofold. First, there is this demographic phenomenon that augments the state of difficulty that needs to be solved, And secondly, there is the fact that crucial financial decisions need to be made at a time of major emotional and physical distress.

The summation of these two situations generates a very complex state of affairs, thus making guidance and sound professional advice an essential component of the solution presented by this financial crossroad.

Let me get started by providing you with some significant historic demographic information that illustrates an important aspect of the turning 65 transition problematic.

When World War II came to an end and a lot of American soldiers returned home to the US, an enormous number of babies were born. This population explosion is what is known as the baby boom, as baptized by sociologists.

It lasted approximately 18 years from 1946 to 1964. And the numbers associated with the baby boom are striking. Just to give you an idea, in the first year of the baby boom which was 1946, there were 3.4 million recorded births. In 1957, the babies born set a record for the highest number of births ever recorded in the US with 4.3 million babies born. Basically the baby boom ended in 1964 with a little bit over 4 million recorded births in that year.

The important thing here is that this large number of people have transformed the economics and the demographics of every time period they touch acting as an enormous agent of change, brought forth by an enormous wave of consumption, marked by rules and behaviors that have been defined on the spot, as the wave of baby boomers moves through the American economy and through time. Industries, companies, fortunes, and all types of business have been born and disappear as the baby boomers wave passes along, after the economical and financial effects of the interaction with the baby boomers occurred.

And that brings us to the present. Let me give you an idea of where we are today with regards to the baby boomers wave, and more important than that, where we’re headed with regards to the baby boomers wave. By 2030, the 65 plus population will double to about 75 million and by 2050, it will grow to around 87 million people. Presently, approximately ten thousand people turn 65 every day. The baby boomers are turning grey and becoming senior citizens.

And with this, they bring in their special lifestyle that it’s embedded in the way they grew up and they have lived their life. On average, baby boomers have held 11 jobs during their working years, and currently spend around 13 hours per week online.

Collectively, the boomers hold around $13 trillion dollars in assets, which represents over 50% of the entire asset base of the United States.

So here you have a very large group of people, that are becoming senior citizens simultaneously, and with them they bring this huge asset base that needs to be transferred in the next couple of years, at the same time that they need to enroll into the most sophisticated health care management system in the world.

This total transition generates huge challenges to the economy in general, and to any system, sector or industry that interacts with them.

Let me be a bit more specific. So we have this large group of people born between 1946 and 1964 that are reaching the age of 65 and are getting to these crossroads between work and retirement, and basically they have to move from a corporate world or what I call the corporate Umbrella under which they have been operating throughout their lives, and they have to transition into this new individual world where they need to function and live for the rest of their lives.

Now the complicated thing about the turning 65 transition is that a lot of things happen at the same time. You have to transition in what I call the health arena, and transition in what I call the wealth arena. And all this happens simultaneously.

We have this window of time that occurs somewhere between the ages of 62 and 67, pivoting around the age of 65, where all individuals have to make all these important decisions with regards to the way they’re going to manage their health into the future and the way they will manage their wealth into the future.

And they have to do this while going through some personal situations that are very emotional, because they are retiring, they’re changing their lifestyle, and that also affects the way they think and their capacity to make decisions. So, what I want to emphasize at this point with regards to the turning 65 transition, is that it is a complex time in everybody’s life, because it is bounded by a set of very particular collection of circumstances that includes multiple new situations and the need to make several transcendental decisions that are going to directly modify and influence their lifestyles and the way they will live the rest of their lives.

Now, what we are doing is we are going to shed some light into this process and provide you with crucial guidance with regards on how to confront and go about this situation. And for that, what we have done is we have divided the transition process into two very specific areas on the basis of a plan or specific purpose. The two areas are:

1. The health care management transition.

2. The wealth management transition process.

So first, let’s talk about the health care management and how that works.

Basically, you are in this environment where you have been working all of your life under some type of group health plan that was provided to you either by your employer or through some type of Individual Major medical plan that you had purchased directly from a private carrier. And now, at the age of 65, you have to transition into the Medicare world. Now you are in front of your IEP. Do you know what that is? Do not panic. Welcome to the Medicare world. IEP stands for Initial Enrollment Period, and it is the time when you are first eligible to enroll into any one of the different Medicare programs.

It is convenient to get started with Medicare during your IEP, and this is a good time to make the transition. The way we’re going to help you with this is we have collected 4 publications that we’re going to be providing you the link to them, and that are going to give you that essential elements you need to know about how to get started in this transition process. All of the publications are produced by CMS which is the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and is the maximum federal authority that rules the Medicare world. The first publication is called A Quick Look at Medicare. Basically, this is a booklet that is going to give you a first overall exposure of what Medicare is all about, and the different parts of Medicare. And it’s also going to give you a at a glance look of your Medicare coverage choices and the decisions that you need to make. So with this document, you are going to get a first vision of what the Medicare world is all about.

Additionally, we’re going to provide you with a second booklet that is called Your Medicare Basics. This booklet is a little bit more elaborate than the first one, and starts getting into the specifics of the Medicare world. And it’s going to give you some guidance with regards to how navigate Medicare, what are your healthcare choices, and it’s going to help you with what a very detailed list of the steps that you need to follow and how you need to follow those steps. And it’s also going to render definitions of some of the most important components and terms you need to get familiarized with. I am pretty sure this document will take some of the confusion out of the process for you. So with the second book, Medicare Basics, you will get an overall detailed image or picture of what Medicare is all about.

Then, we’re going to provide you with another document that is called Your Guide to Medicare Preventive Services. Preventive services are a very important component of Medicare for several different reasons. Preventive services are something that you have to incorporate in your life now, as you are retiring. And this booklet that we’re going to provide you with is going to give you some guidance with regards to that. It will cover topics like which preventive services Medicare covers and how often are those services provided, and who can get those services. It also includes a list of all the different services that are covered, and tells you how much you have to pay for the different preventive services that Medicare provides for you. This document also gives you information on the one-time Welcome to Medicare physical exam that you are entitled to. Finally, it will shed some light with regards to the importance of preventive services into the rest of your life, and how you need to modify your healthcare management behavior to accommodate a proactive preventive services attitude.

And finally, in this health care management transition process, we’re going to furnish you with information with regards on how to get help with your Medicare expenses. There are many different programs that can help you save money. The idea is to present you with specific information so that you can get started in the process of assessing the possibility of receiving extra help, and seeing if you qualify for any one or more of the different programs out there that can help you one way or another with regards to everything that has to do with Medicare. The name of this last publication is Get Help With Your Medicare Costs.

So summarizing, we’re going to help you with four very specific documents, or booklets, which are going to get you started in the health care management transition process, and are going to help you decide what the important decisions that you need to make are. I’m going to guide you on how to make those decisions. With that, we believe we are providing you with the information you need to get started with the health care transition.

Now, we’re going to talk about the wealth management transition, and again, you are going to find yourself in this situation where you need to make important decisions, but now they are not about health management, but they are related to the way you are going to manage your money for the rest of your life.

And in terms of the specific age, in this case, the wealth management transition doesn’t occur at a specific age, but is a window that opens around the age of 62 and goes to about the age of 67, and it’s a period of time where you have to transition from the corporate world, which was the way you used to handle all your strategies and your plans for retirement, and now you have to transition into converting all those plans or strategies that you have into reality. That is, into individual retirement accounts that you’re going to start using. You are going to transition from the Contribution stage of your financial life, into the Distribution stage of your life. And you need to start taking money from all those accounts that you have accumulated during your lifetime.

So the wealth management transition is a very crucial process where you’re going to essentially stop accumulating money and start spending that money that you have been saving or investing during your working years. We are going to help you with the wealth management transition, and we are going to get you started by providing you with a publication from the Department of Labor called What You Should Know about Your Retirement Plan. This is 35 page booklet that covers several different aspects of the overall process that you’re going to go through over the conversion period. It’s going to give you some insights into the type of retirement plans that are out there, so you can better understand the type of plan that you probably presently have. It’s also going to cover earning retirement benefits and how the payment of benefits occurs. And most important that all other topics, it’s going to talk about how to take your retirement benefits with you. This is what the famous rollover is all about. And the booklet is going to illustrate you on how to do that, and how to make sure that you don’t commit any errors that can generate penalties or fines if you don’t know how to go about your retirement transfers.

So there you have it. We are going to guide you through one of the most confusing and sensitive periods that you will have in your life, and we will do that by preparing you to think objectively. You will get 5 booklets that will make a huge difference in this process. Additionally, if you want so, we can meet you on a personal basis, and cover with you all the material in the booklets to make sure you understand what you need to do, and make sure you proceed diligently.