Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

The way children see the world, the way they communicate, and what they feel confident about and worry about is different from how adults see the world, communicate, etc. The same is true for seniors. Thinking that we “know” seniors because we have seniors in our lives, or even because we’re seniors ourselves, is the same as thinking that we “know” nutrition just because we eat. It doesn’t work that way, and beneficially working with seniors demands a deeper knowledge and broader understanding of aging just as working with children requires its own set of skills and abilities.

This is one reason we’re seeing more professionals make the effort to learn about aging – whether they learn it by going through Society’s designation training, or whether they learn it by enrolling in classes about gerontology. The stakes have never been higher if only because we have so many more seniors these days and will have even more in the future. No matter what your field, you take a risk by not knowing as much as you can about the seniors you’re working with, and given their age, making mistakes with seniors can have much greater and more serious consequences than working with younger people who have more years to recover from uninformed advice and bad decisions.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, it isn’t what you know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you think you know that isn’t true that causes the most trouble.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

Time and Difficulty Don’t Equal Value

Question: Joe spent two days to earn his driver’s license. Jane spent two years to earn her commercial pilot’s license. Which one had the more rigorous education?

Answer: Trick question. The value of any education is whether it adequately teaches you what you need to know to do whatever it is you want to do. The fact that Jane spent two years learning to fly airplanes doesn’t diminish the value of Joe’s being able to drive a car. So to say that Jane’s education was more rigorous than Joe’s is irrelevant and beside the point, because you’re comparing two courses of study that taught different subjects.

So why are we bringing this up? Because you can earn the Certified Senior Advisor (CSA)® credential by investing 60 or 70 hours, some persons think that it’s less rigorous than a financial planning credential that might take 600 or 700 hours. But the CSA training shows you how to work with seniors and to have an understanding of how growing older influences our lives, and that knowledge is helpful to you no matter what your field. A financial planning credential teaches completely different material to people who want to be financial planners. That’s why for most professionals (including about 600 CFPs), it’s not a case of choosing between CSA and another designation. It’s adding CSA to whatever other education you have so that you can better apply your knowledge with seniors.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

A Tax Tip from the National Society of Tax Professionals
There is a little known provision of the tax law that has only the year of 2007 left for its use. Congress can and has been known to extend these types of provisions in the law but there are no guarantees. The particular law serves to benefit certain senior citizens who are now 70 & 1/2 years old, have Traditional IRA accounts and are now required to take at least the Required Minimum Distribution.

There are a significant number of retirees who have provided well for themselves during retirement and perhaps put off taking distributions from their IRA’s. They did not need nor did they want to increase their taxable income unnecessarily. Now (at 70 & 1/2) they are facing the reality of having to comply with taking at least the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). This represents taxable income.

Several negative things occur with this RMD. Taxable income increases; more of the Social Security Benefits are taxable; tax brackets are perhaps changed upward; if you itemize and benefit from medical expenses as a deduction, less of these will be deductible because of the increase to Adjusted Gross Income which impacts the 7.5% limitation on medical deductions upward. None of these are good, especially if you don’t need the money in the first place.

What can you do to alleviate the situation? Under the current provision of the tax law you can make a direct gift of the IRA, all or a portion of it, directly to a qualified charitable organization. The maximum amount contributed is limited to $100,000. By doing this, the amount distributed does not hit the taxpayer’s income tax return at all. It was a direct transfer from the custodian of the IRA to the charitable organization. Since the law is scheduled to expire on 12/31/2007, in order to receive the greatest benefit a gift of the entire IRA subject to the dollar limitation is suggested.

Perhaps you have more than one IRA. The gift counts toward the RMD for 2007 and future RMD’s will be smaller since they are calculated on a smaller base.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

Your Senior Clients Need This …
Here’s something every senior needs to know: They have a one-in-three chance of falling this year. In addition, if they fall once, they are three times more likely to fall a second time.

Falls are the leading cause of injury deaths among seniors, and the place where they’re most likely to fall is in their home.

Not only are falls injurious and potentially fatal, falls are directly responsible for 40 percent of all nursing home admissions.

To reduce chances of falling, consider the following:

• Make sure there are no slippery floor surfaces
• Use non-slip mats in the bathtub and on shower floors.
• Install handrails on BOTH sides of the stairways.
• Remove throw rugs that are easy to trip on.
• When getting up from bed in the dark, turn on lights immediately.
• Engage in physical activities that increase lower-body strength and balance.
• Have your doctor or pharmacist review medications to reduce side effects and interactions.
• Have vision checked at least once a year.
• Clear walkways of clutter.
• Install grab bars next to the toilet and in the tub or shower.

Share this information with the seniors in your life. Better yet, do a home walkthrough with them to identify potential hazards.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

There is no such thing as a “typical” senior. Generally, once people reach age 65, they are referred to as seniors — although many marketers today also consider the leading edge of the baby boomers who are now in their mid to late 50s to be a part of the senior audience. AARP, the leading senior membership organization, today represents more than 35 million members over the age of 50. That’s a tremendous audience and one that’s not homogenous. (And, of course, not all older Americans are AARP members.)

This vast group of Americans owns 70 percent of all money market accounts and certificates of deposit assets, and they have a per capita income 26 percent higher than the national average. They spend more than $1 trillion on goods and services (SeniorMag.com, 2004):

• They account for 60 percent of all health care spending
• They purchase 74 percent of all prescription drugs and buy 51 percent of all over-the-counter drugs
• They acquire 41 percent of all new cars
• They purchase 25 percent of all toys
• They account for 8 percent of all luxury travel

Statistics like these are interesting, but they won’t help you make a solid connection with a senior. Certainly, taken as a whole, seniors tend to be more affluent than younger Americans — but in order to really connect, you’ll need to understand the impact of aging on a typical man or woman. And you’ll need to know how those cognitive, physical, emotional and social changes will affect their responsiveness to any particular marketing messages.

Although aging adults have many things in common with each other in terms of cognitive and emotional response, never lose sight of the fact this is a huge and diverse market. Not all seniors are alike — and not all will respond well to a particular marketing tactic. It pays to be familiar with the commonalities, but don’t assume you can market one way to all seniors collectively. You can’t. Seniors don’t become more alike as they age; rather, they become more unique. Your marketing tools must have lots of variety in style to meet the different ways seniors respond. No one avenue will reach the majority of seniors.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

The reality is that what people are really buying is not the service, but the people who provide it. Research shows that the more we like a person, the more capable the person seems. If you look at successful businesses, you’ll find they have been able to connect on a deeply personal level with their clients. Their clients like and are loyal to them because they are made to feel “special.”

Gift-giving can still be a very effective means of making people feel special if the gift is clearly chosen for the specific individual and given in a thoughtful manner. To do this right, you must give something away that is useful and meaningful and do it in person.

10 Simple Rules for Successful Gift-Giving:

• Never give a customer something you would be uncomfortable, embarrassed or angered to receive yourself.
• You can send gifts and advertise, but never at the same time. If you get a box of chocolate with a logo on it, you can’t help thinking, “This company thinks so highly of me they send me an advertisement?”
• Don’t try to buy a customer. 1200 members of an industry trade association were offered incentives varying from $1 to $40 to complete a survey. Results indicated that incentives from $1-$5 doubled response rates from those who received no-incentive but that higher incentives had additional minimal value.
• Make sure the value of the gift isn’t out of whack with the nature of the business involved. Too expensive a gift may be seen as a way to buy their business rather than as a form of appreciation. However, special occasions, such as a 50th anniversary or the like, may call for a more valuable item.
• Select only items that relate to your business and remind people of the benefits you offer. One caveat: this only holds true if your prospect actually would find the item useful or valuable.
• Choose items that your prospective customers will want or need and things that they will notice, pick up and keep for least a period of time.
• Pick only items that will enhance, not detract, from your professional image.
• Know how you will distribute the item. In person is by far the best and most effective method because it provides you with an opportunity to meet with your client and prospect and to personalize your message.
• Decide if and how you will include your name or logo, if at all. The more exclusive your clientele and offering, the more discreet your name should be.
• Be sure to track who has received gifts and how they responded. This will help you know what worked, how the gift was received, and what you might change or do the next time.

Most of all, don’t forget there is no gift as universally appreciated and welcome as the simple gift of a sincere “thank you.”

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

Resolve to talk with your parents, family members or clients about critical aging issues.

There’s a good reason to make this resolution. A recent survey by the Roper Public Affairs and Media Group of 1,000 seniors nationwide indicates that Baby Boomers are not communicating with their parents as often or as well as they think. In fact, the study found a real disconnect between the issues adult children perceived as important and seniors’ actual concerns.

For starters, adult children think their parents are more concerned about aging issues than they actually are (53 percent vs. 33 percent). That’s a pretty big gap.

The difference in wavelength may be because seniors and children don’t talk often enough. Baby Boomers claim to talk frequently with their parents about important health and other matters (60 percent). However, only 32 percent of seniors agree.

What is even more alarming is the fact that seniors say that critical topics such as nursing homes, long-term care, the ability to drive, wills and funeral planning are rarely discussed.

Surprisingly enough, it’s not seniors who are uncomfortable talking about these subjects. More than three-quarters of those surveyed said they would like to discuss driving, insurance and health care issues with their kids but only about 17 to 18 percent actually do so.

The problem seems to be that both generations want to deal with these issues but each is waiting for the other to bring them up. According to the study, one-third of seniors and their children agreed they would like to have more conversations about these topics. The barrier seems to be that a slightly larger number (46 percent) said they would participate if the others spoke first.

One area of communication that really needs help is Medicare and the many new options available to seniors. Baby Boomers think it is important to understand insurance coverage and issues so they can help their parents (76 percent). However, more than half of those surveyed admitted they were relatively clueless about how Medicare works.

So what can be done to close the gap? Seniors and adult children need to get the conversation started, according to Dr. Edward Schneider, Dean Emeritus of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California . “Often, families discuss these critical life issues under duress usually after a life-changing event impacts their families or friends,” Schneider notes. “The time to talk and plan is now, when plans can be made proactively. Developing these action plans is imperative, enabling families to have peace of mind and a sense of control over their future,” he adds.

There are a number of helpful tools available. One is the “Connecting the Generations Conversation Guide,” a 24-page free book with tips to help initiate conversations on critical health and aging issues. The Guide is produced by WellPoint, Inc., a health benefits company that offers healthcare plans and services. Wellpoint, Inc. sponsored the Roper study as part of an initiative to help educate and involve families in health care planning.

Another is a new website launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in December. The goal of the website, www.longtermcare.gov, is to make it easier for consumers to get the information they need to plan for long-term care. The National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information site provides comprehensive information about long-term care planning, services and financing options, along with tools to help people begin the planning process.

And, of course, there’s the Certified Senior Advisor designation training. Seventy-six percent of CSAs say their most improved skill after becoming a CSA was better communication with seniors.

Whatever route you take, the first step in closing the gap begins with you. Don’t wait another year to initiate conversations and make decisions that will impact the quality of life of a loved one. Start today.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

Are seniors afraid of the Internet and computers?

Older adults are actually among the fastest-growing group of Web users. Ten million Americans 60 and older use the Internet daily. Seventy percent of persons age 50 to 64 are online. The higher their education and income, the more likely they are to be online.

But older Web users often have unique needs and interests when it comes to their online experience. That means businesses must develop their Web sites with older visitors in mind.

Consultant Dick Stroud, founder of 20plus30, a British marketing strategy company, offers these tips for making a Web site easier to navigate and read for older adults:

• Use san serif fonts (such as Arial) no smaller than 12 point. Include an option for users to increase the font size.
• Create clear visual contrast between the navigation and content areas of the screen.
• Keep lines of text 40 to 50 letters wide or less to reduce eyestrain.
• Don’t use backgrounds.
• Treat all links consistently throughout the site to avoid confusion and allow sufficient space between active links.
• Make all graphics at least 18-22 pixels large.
• Avoid drop-down menus because they require mouse precision that some older users may not have.
• Allow users to navigate the page using the directional keys on the keyboard.
• Keep navigation simple and allow older users to easily get back to where they were if they end up someplace they didn’t intend.
• Keep all content clear, concise, simple and easy to understand.
• Avoid animation.
• Provide a printer-friendly version of all content.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

There is no such thing as a “typical” senior. Generally, once people reach age 65, they are referred to as seniors — although many marketers today also consider the leading edge of the baby boomers who are now in their mid to late 50s to be a part of the senior audience. AARP, the leading senior membership organization, today represents more than 35 million members over the age of 50. That’s a tremendous audience and one that’s not homogenous. (And, of course, not all older Americans are AARP members.)

This vast group of Americans owns 70 percent of all money market accounts and certificates of deposit assets, and they have a per capita income 26 percent higher than the national average. They spend more than $1 trillion on goods and services (SeniorMag.com, 2004):

They account for 60 percent of all health care spending
They purchase 74 percent of all prescription drugs and buy 51 percent of all over-the-counter drugs
They acquire 41 percent of all new cars
They purchase 25 percent of all toys
They account for 8 percent of all luxury travel

Statistics like these are interesting, but they won’t help you make a solid connection with a senior. Certainly, taken as a whole, seniors tend to be more affluent than younger Americans — but in order to really connect, you’ll need to understand the impact of aging on a typical man or woman. And you’ll need to know how those cognitive, physical, emotional and social changes will affect their responsiveness to any particular marketing messages.

Although aging adults have many things in common with each other in terms of cognitive and emotional response, never lose sight of the fact this is a huge and diverse market. Not all seniors are alike — and not all will respond well to a particular marketing tactic. It pays to be familiar with the commonalities, but don’t assume you can market one way to all seniors collectively. You can’t. Seniors don’t become more alike as they age; rather, they become more unique. Your marketing tools must have lots of variety in style to meet the different ways seniors respond. No one avenue will reach the majority of seniors.

Senior Home Care Franchise Business driven by elders and seniors who want to live at home. Start your own home care business – Companion Connection Senior Care – Call David Goodman at (800) 270-6949.

Lots of industries are looking to benefit from baby boomers’ $2 trillion in annual spending.

Some are predictable: pharmaceuticals and medical devices typically count older persons among their best customers.

Some are less predictable — natural food stores, for example. Experts also believe that baby boomers will accelerate growth in luxury goods, home furnishings and new time-share concepts like real-estate clubs. With their kids out of the house, boomers may also lead to higher degrees of pet ownership, with a corresponding opportunity for businesses that sell pet supplies.

But maybe the best opportunities will come in financial services. One of the biggest catalysts for the financial-planning industry will be boomers nearing retirement. In coming years, boomers’ parents are expected to pass $20 trillion to $40 trillion of wealth to boomers, which will also fuel a big business in estate transfer and wealth management. As boomers see their parents and older friends exhaust their bank accounts to pay for nursing-home and hospital bills, more will seek out long-term-care insurance.

Brent Green, author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers (and a speaker at next month’s CSA Summit) offers these tips for dealing with boomers:

• Brand loyalty will diminish. Boomers are accustomed to experimentation and brand choices and will obliterate the myth that the older get, the less likely we are to switch brands.
• Like today’s seniors, tomorrow’s won’t be all alike. Not all are prosperous, white-collar types. Nearly one-third are not prosperous or even marginally comfortable, but people without liquid assets still use a number of products and services that address their economic handicaps.
• Boomers are attracted to marketing messages that help them process their lives. They’re more concerned about relevance and legacies and less concerned about acquisition for purely material satisfaction.
• Boomers see themselves as active, energetic and engaged. Don’t approach them as if they aren’t or won’t always be that way.