Unique challenges face boomers moving into retirement, not the least of which is a longer life expectancy matched to shorter-term assets and savings, Englin said. The imbalance is just one of the challenges boomers will encounter, and not everyone understands how to navigate the road that lies ahead.

"People need to have a general idea of how much money they're going to need in retirement, but each situation is different," Englin said. "Heck, I'm not going to do it for them. People need to take ownership of their retirement needs because they will be the ones who benefit."

Credit unions such as Veridian, which offers a unique and comprehensive blend of retiree counseling, investment and insurance services, can benefit from the vast wealth held by boomers providing they have the capacity and financial products to tap into the asset stream.

It's expected that some 8,000 boomers will turn 65 every day for the next few decades, according to data presented in "Baby Boomers & Retirement Planning: Recent Trends and Future Implications for Credit Unions," a study published in January by the Filene Research Institute. Various estimates note that the aggregate wealth of those boomers falls somewhere between $14 trillion and $41 trillion.

"The opportunity for financial service providers is huge," Gary Weuve, vice president of CUNA Brokerage Services Inc. (CBSI), the investments arm of CUNA Mutual, said. "There will be a lot of competition interested in serving baby boomers, and the majority of boomers probably belong to a credit union."

Despite that potential groundswell, 65% of those over 65 plan to continue working or not retire at all in an attempt to preserve their assets, the study said. Many of them have good health and capabilities to do so, and that means retirement needs for this cohort will be different than for those generations that have come before, Weuve said.

"Some of them will be pursing encore careers, doing things that match their personal values or benefit society, while others will have serial careers, in which they meld several part-time jobs together at the same time," Weuve said. "They're going to want to get out and get active, so those nest eggs are going to have to last a long time."

Boomers' complicated retirement scenarios don't always benefit the credit unions of which they may have been lifetime members, argued Filene researchers Ben Rogers and Manpreet Nat, who authored the January study.

In fact, boomer retirees tend to rely on their credit unions less and less due to a lack of convenience, having their assets domiciled elsewhere and the narrow ranges of services that many credit unions offer, the study said. Boomers need accelerated savings programs, diverse investment portfolios, wealth protection and financial securities, and will gravitate to providers able to meet those needs. Unfortunately, many of them know little about approaching what is often a mystifying and sometimes terrifying topic.

"Many people are not educated and have no relative idea about what their costs, health and activity levels of retirement will look like," Bryan Roberts, vice president of wealth management for CBSI, who works out of $1.4 billion American Heritage Credit Union in Philadelphia, said. "We spend a lot of time helping them paint a picture of what those needs look like, how they change over time, and what they need to understand to retire successfully."

Roberts oversees a staff of seven, whose job is to educate credit union members on retirement's rigors. Team members meet personally with about 150 members per month to discuss retirement issues and participate in as many as 20 seminars per year in different locations on topics such as Social Security, income planning and other retirement topics. They also sell investment products designed to help retirees maximize their return on assets.

"The good news about CBSI is that they let us have a wide-open platform with no emphasis on a proprietary product mix, which means there are plenty of ways to get the job done," Roberts said. "Most people use cash accounts as well as a mixture of brokerage-managed accounts, annuities with income features, and different life insurance products that will cover long-term care needs."

Financial security (or for some, insecurity), is fostered by six distinct threats facing retiring boomers, CBSI's Weuve said. Financial risk, or the possibility of outlining your money, is further exacerbated by inflation risk, which could raise prices and cause that money to drain away faster than anticipated.

On the financial side, there is also income risk and the ability to attract as much or at least enough money to cover expenses, and welfare risk, or how long Social Security and Medicaid supplements will last and how deep those pockets will remain as the retiree continues to age.

Compound those risk categories with longevity risks, or how long one will live, and health risk, or how one will cover health care costs, and the future can be daunting for the unprepared retiree, Weuve said.

"It's important that credit unions reach out to their members and not be afraid to use the "R" word when talking about retirement planning," Weuve said. "Baby boomers are going to live longer than any generation before them, and the reality of this hasn't hit them yet."

Credit unions' reputation as member-friendly service providers can go a long way in helping better assist members, provided they have the resources to do so. Services such as those offered by Veridian Credit Union help set the stage for providing successful retirement services to members.

In November 2009, the credit union established The Veridian Group, a wholly-owned CUSO of the credit union that allows them to offer brokerage services and sell health insurance to members. CBSI's five on-site brokerage representatives operate through the CUSO, as does Todd Cooper, health specialist for Veridian Insurance.

"I would say close to 90% of the people I talk to are aged 55 to 65 and want to know how to get health insurance when they retire," Cooper said. "I am certified to help people go through the process of obtaining insurance, and that's what sets us apart."

Cooper and Englin also counsel members at no charge on how to ford the other rapids of retirement, directing them to various departments within the credit union. Veridian's holistic approach addresses as many of retirement's financial concerns as are possible for a single institution to address, and exemplifies the credit union's member service philosophy at a time critical in its members' lives, Englin said.

"Retirement planning is all pretty complex in most situations," Englin added. "But we practice what we preach when we say we partner with our members to create their financial futures."