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Is AARP really protecting you? Or are they simply out to influence your decisions in their favor.
Should you be listening to AARP? I have been getting more and more questions from various people such as insurance professionals, securities brokers and senior clients wanting to know is AARP really a non-profit organization?
Technically AARP stands for Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons. It is an association by definition of its own name. But, what is an association? According to Wikipedia an association is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose. Well what is AARP’s purpose. One could speculate that they are trying to help seniors. Another could speculate that they are trying to persuade seniors to by products that they make money from. While others may speculate that they are simply an organization who has been tainted by political views.
Recently, television made it obvious that AARP was caught in the middle of a political scandal involving the health care bill. Supposedly AARP is a non-partisan group but according to CNN they backed a healthcare bill promoted mainly by the democratic party. In that same article AARP CEO Barry Rand Said , "We can say with confidence that [the House bill] meets those goals with improved benefits for people in Medicare and needed health insurance market reforms to help ensure every American can purchase affordable health coverage."
In another earlier interview AARP CEO Barry Rand said “I want to make it clear that AARP has not endorsed any particular bill.” At the time this statement was to perceived to imply that president Obama was falsely promoting AARP as having endorsed healthcare reform. However, in a later interview AARP CEO held a press conference to again sway on the subject and endorse bill HR3962. It would seem that AARP has flip flopped on the subject several times trying to win the general approval of the public. But why would an association need to get the general publics approval?
For years the AARP has been acting as a corporation. A for profit corporation in fact. Many seniors each year purchase healthcare and other insurance policies through AARP’s endorsed products program and AARP get a Royalty fee for each policy sold. AARP has been making millions of dollars off of seniors for years and more and more Americans are starting to take notice. In fact Bloomberg Television is hosting a special that investigates into the reason seniors are now saying that this highly respected organization does a better job of working for its own financial well being than that of the senior population. This Bloomberg TV special titled “Making Money, Losing Trust” aired on January 16, 2009 and it showed how AARP is making money while seniors are losing money each day on endorsed products.
AARP seems to be promoting products that make them money, issuing endorsements that have political motives and worst of all they are persuading seniors that insurance agents are out to get them. All of this so that they can receive more of the profits from sponsored and endorsed programs that are not offered through independent agents or direct writing carriers. You should always shop around before buying any insurance products even if it is backed by a once respected organization.
Watch the Video from Bloomberg TV here
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