New research reveals 1 out of 3 retirees would choose to live elsewhere

WALTHAM, Mass., January 10, 2019 –Continuing its mission to make aging easier and enable older Americans to be more engaged in their communities, Age Friendly Ventures today announced the launch of Age Friendly Advisor (agefriendly.com).  The site is a first-of-its-kind online platform with user-influenced, age-friendly scores for every neighborhood in America among other services. It features user-contributed reviews, research, and helpful content for people making important decisions on how and where to age. Recognizing the challenges faced by mature adults to seek, find, and settle in communities that meet their needs, agefriendly.com crowdsources reviews for age-friendly places worldwide: communities and workplaces that are forward-thinking and which have shown they welcome and support baby boomers and seniors.

“When managed well, user-contributed reviews reveal an extraordinary wisdom of the crowd,” said Tim Driver, CEO and Founder of Age Friendly Ventures. “Just as consumers read and give product reviews on Amazon and restaurant and hotel ratings on Yelp and TripAdvisor, Americans can now go to agefriendly.com to read and publish crowdsourced reviews tackling complicated topics around aging.”  Advice perceived by peers as valuable is ‘upvoted’ so that it is more visible and actionable.  Community reviews are supplemented with in-person, telephone and online help from a staff of professional advisors. 

“Navigating one’s later years is often extremely complex for both older people and their families. Where we choose to live in retirement is a defining feature of how well we will live in older age. Seeking the right advice, at the right time, is a crucial part of planning life tomorrow.” said Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D., founder and Director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Providing more information to more people in an accessible way is always a good thing.  As someone who encourages working longer for a secure retirement, it's great to see a centralized resource for older job seekers,” said Alicia Munnell, who is the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. Munnell also serves as the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Enabling Individuals to Engage More Easily With Their Community

Many older adults are unaware of resources available to help them stay socially engaged.  Age Friendly Advisor makes it easier for people to find age friendly places and services for three purposes:

• Everyday living: this section provides a way for older adults to connect with resources, engage with each other, and communicate with their city or town.
• Caregiving: this section supports people who want to age in place and stay connected to their communities.
• Working/volunteering: this section connects people to age friendly employers, including employee reviews and job postings.

Age Friendly Advisor’s ratings reflect how well communities are supporting their older residents and visitors, and steps being taken to improve relationships. Age Friendly Advisor blends user-furnished reviews with externally sourced data to identify, and regularly update, a community score. There is a page for every town in the United States, plus London, England, with more international cities to be added.  Reviews may be posted to any of these town pages and are initially concentrated in northeastern United States. 

Accelerating the Age Friendly Movement

Over more than 10 years, the U.N. World Health Organization has built substantial international momentum around its designation of age-friendly cities. There are now more than 700 worldwide.  States, including Massachusetts, New York, and Colorado, also have earned age-friendly status. Popular career site RetirementJobs.com, with its 1.3 million job seeker members nationwide, has operated the widely recognized Certified Age Friendly Employers program since 2006. Age Friendly Advisor will accelerate this momentum in the cities and employment categories, and explore others. 

Data from Leading Organizations Addressing Needs of Aging Americans

To design, operate and grow Age Friendly Advisor, Age Friendly Ventures is collaborating with research and academic partners that share its commitment to serving the age 50+ population and their families.  Age Friendly Advisor’s ratings incorporate data contributed by the Milken Institute in addition to other externally available sources, such as the U.S. Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Age Friendly Advisor is also undertaking research with Boston College and other private research organizations to further examine questions around the business case for older workers. 

Corporate Founding Sponsors 

Industry giants MassMutual, Home Instead Senior Care and Benchmark Senior Living, have joined Age Friendly Advisor as premier Corporate Founding Sponsors. “Today’s retirees need to plan for a long journey of living their life to the fullest and anything we can do to help them secure their future is embedded in our DNA at MassMutual,” said Mike Fanning, head of MassMutual US.  “It’s a natural fit for us to join with Age Friendly Ventures on a mission to help make aging easier by opening access to honest, candid insights that may otherwise not be easy to tap into.” 

Strong Leadership 

Age Friendly Advisor launches through the combined efforts of 75 people. Members of the management team include industry veterans and data product development experts, who bring a broad set of skills to the organization: 

• CEO Tim Driver served as Committee Co-Chair to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s Council to Address Aging. In 2017, Mr. Driver was named a national Top 50 “Influencer in Aging.”
• Before joining Age Friendly Ventures, Product Marketing Vice President Daniel McCullough helped lead AARP’s digital membership acquisition efforts.
• Care Management Vice President Charlene Neu is a Gerontologist and member of the Aging Life Care Association. 
• Research & Employer Certification Vice President Amanda Henshon holds a JD from Harvard Law School, MA from Yale University and has experience in a large corporate law firm.

Survey Methodology

Age Friendly Ventures surveyed more than 700 members age 70+ online in December 2018.  For more details on the "How Did You Decide Where to Retire?" survey, please see this post on the Age Friendly Advisor site.

About Age Friendly Ventures

Founded in 2005, Waltham, MA-based Age Friendly Ventures is the parent company for three affiliated, mission-driven, online divisions whose common purpose is making aging easier. Age Friendly Ventures addresses the engagement, income, care, and living needs of 108 million Americans aged 50+:

• RetirementJobs.com (established in 2006) – The leading career site for people age 50+ with 1.3 million U.S. job seeker members (and soon in Canada), helping them to find income and work with Certified Age Friendly Employers™.
• Mature Caregivers (established in 2012) – Full-service elder care agency pairing caregivers age 50+ with care recipients requiring in-home care in Massachusetts.
• Age Friendly Advisor (established in 2018) – International online community and destination for crowd-sourced user reviews on how and where to age. 

For more information visit agefriendly.com.

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