Baby Boomers Should Be Split for Planned Giving

Last year the youngest Baby Boomers turned 50 while the oldest Boomers turned 68. Does a 50-year-old really have that much in common with a 68-year-old, especially when it comes to planned giving? It behooves planned gift fundraisers to take a different approach than lumping all the Boomers together - a different approach pioneered by Pentera 15 years ago.

This approach has been confirmed in the last few years by researchers who have divided the Boomers into as many as three cohorts:

Nickname	Birth Dates	Age Turning in 2015
Leading Edge Boomers	1946-1951	64-69
Middle Boomers	1952-1958	57-63
Trailing Edge Boomers	1959-1964	51-56

Fundraisers certainly want to work differently with the Leading Edge Boomers - most of whom are now retired, with the rest quickly approaching retirement - than they do with the Trailing Edge Boomers, who are at the height of their careers and earning power.

Oldest and Youngest Boomers Studied
One of the best studies of the differences and similarities at opposite ends of the generation was conducted by the MetLife Mature Market Institute® in 2009; "Boomer Bookends" interviewed about a thousand of the oldest Boomers (born in 1946) and a thousand of the youngest Boomers (born in 1964) and compared what they had to say. The results clearly showed different financial circumstances that have implications for planned giving:

• The youngest Boomers listed "outliving retirement money" as their biggest concern regarding retirement, while "no concern" was the top choice of the oldest Boomers.
• A higher percentage of the youngest Boomers (53% to 44%) reported being "significantly behind" or "somewhat behind" their desired progress toward reaching retirement goals.
• A significantly higher percentage of the oldest Boomers reported having a defined benefit pension or an annuity, while more of the youngest Boomers reported having a 401(k) plan.

Life Stage Planning Works Best for Boomers
Rather than looking at all the Boomers as one generation with similar needs, planned giving professionals are better served by engaging the Boomers in life stage gift planning - which was pioneered by Pentera in 1999. The Leading Edge Boomers and the Trailing Edge Boomers right now fit neatly into two of Pentera's standard life stage categories - under age 60 and ages 60-70. The Middle Boomers, rather than being considered as a single group, can be divided into life stage by their individual ages.

Pentera's Life Stage Gift Planner™ states that those under 60 tend to be concerned with discretionary savings programs and long-range planning for retirement and emergencies - which is confirmed by the MetLife findings with the youngest Boomers. Appropriate planned gifts may include a charitable remainder unitrust or a deferred charitable gift annuity.

Meanwhile, those aged 60-70 tend to be using wealth-transfer strategies to optimize family wealth and maximize tax benefits, according to the Life Stage Gift Planner™. That can include a charitable remainder annuity trust and/or a charitable gift annuity in addition to the strategies used by those under 60.

The Life Stage Gift Planner™ available to Pentera clients has much more information for prospective donors, including for those over age 70 and for alternate sets of life stages with different age ranges. While generational marketing definitely has its place for planned giving, the current age range of the Baby Boomers - straddling the retirement years - better lends itself to life stage gift planning and will continue to do so until the youngest Boomers retire.

The full MetLife study can be downloaded here: https://www.metlife.com/mmi/research/boomer-bookends.html#findings