Baby boomers are aging youthfully.

They are opening their own businesses, remodeling their homes or buying new ones. They are taking care of their parents and paying for their kids' college educations. They want to invest their wealth. Many are still working because they love it or they need to, while others may retire to do whatever they want, but they won't be sitting in rocking chairs.

Baby boomers are redefining the so-called golden years of their parents who simply retired, downsized and traveled. And for credit unions, these new lifestyles of the first Me Generation will yield growth opportunities.

“Boomers are going to spend more in retirement than their parents did and make significant purchases because they are committed to having full and active lives,” Taylor W. Wells, a communications director for the Carrollton, Texas-based On the Mark Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in branding and strategic planning for financial institutions, said. 

Because baby boomers are healthy and expect to have active lifestyles for years to come, they don't like to be referred to as senior citizens, seniors, mature or elderly.

In other words, generational marketing has fallen by the wayside, according to Cyndi Marty, organizational development director for the Madison, Wis.-based Image Works, a marketing firm that serves banks and credit unions. 

“What we're finding is that we can't put these generations into buckets at all,” Marty explained. “We can't say the boomers don't want technology when we know they are the largest growing demographic on Facebook and close to 80% of boomers have cell phones and 65% have smartphones. What we are finding is that it is less about trying to market to someone based on their generation and more about trying to build a relationship with that person and offering options.”

Gallup Analytics research reported earlier this year that only 27% of boomer customers say their primary bank looks out for their financial well-being. Promoting free and highly visible educational programs to improve the financial well-being of customers could create a competitive edge for financial institutions in retaining and attracting consumers, according to Sean Williams, a principal researcher for Gallup Analytics.

What's more, slightly more than two in 10 boomers with investment accounts (21%) say they use their primary financial institution for those accounts, which represents another opportunity for credit unions.

According to Gallup Analytics data, half of baby boomers hold more than $100,000 in investable assets and nearly one in five have more than $500,000 in investable assets. In addition, through 2040, boomers stand to inherit trillions from their parents.

Read more about how credit unions are marketing to baby boomers in the August 5, 2015 print issue of CU Times.