Ken Dychtwald

Note: All of these presentations can be customized to specific audiences and industries.

What is the New Vision for 21st Century Aging?

The 20th century is over—and most solutions to 20th century aging don't work anymore. Are we prepared for the coming age wave? Can we afford to have tens of millions of us living to 80, 90 or even 100+? This visionary presentation will explore both the problems that the age wave brings—and their five interlocking solutions.

How the Age Wave Will Transform the Marketplace, the Workplace
and Our Lives

Increasing longevity, declining fertility and aging baby boomers are triggering an enormous “age wave.”  This demographic tsunami has the potential to create ground-breaking marketplace and work/talent opportunities—and equally compelling social and financial challenges. 

This informative, motivating and entertaining presentation will explore: How will people use their newfound “longevity bonus?”  Why will the “cyclic” lifeplan replace the traditional “linear” model?  How will aging boomers change established paradigms of work, leisure, learning and retirement—as well as lifetime brand loyalty?  What’s the most effective way to market and sell to “middlescent” boomers wishing to enrich the quality of their lives, while forestalling aging?  Why is managing a four-generation workforce the new diversity mandate?

(Note: This presentation can be shaped to focus either on the US, North American or global Age Wave.)

Re-Visioning Retirement:
New Timing, New Purpose, New Planning, New Funding

Everyone’s retirement clock has been reset as a result of the recession.  But highly acclaimed Age Wave research reveals a surprising finding: This could be a good thing, for individuals, the consumer marketplace and financial planning professionals. 

This presentation will explore: Why financial “peace of mind” has become far more important than “wealth” in the new American dream.  How women’s rising financial power is transforming their attitudes and behavior toward money, their family dynamics and the field of retirement planning. 

How the adult lifestage demands of eldercare, sibling care, grandparenthood, singlehood and rehirement will dramatically impact retirement preparation and funding.  We’ll also discuss the products, services and guidance people now seek from financial professionals to safeguard a successful retirement while avoiding the five retirement “wildcards” that could shatter their dreams.

The Cure for Our Aging Healthcare System

Whether we live long lives with vitality and purpose or sickness and suffering will depend to a great extent on our ability to reshape the skills, services and incentives of our current healthcare system.  This new presentation provides a visionary glimpse into the future, outlining the critical course corrections required to create healthy aging and productive longevity. 

Topics to be covered include: Why we must accelerate the scientific breakthroughs needed to prevent, delay and eliminate the horrific diseases of aging (such as Alzheimer’s); why training healthcare professionals to become “aging-ready” will both saves lives and money; how the boomers’ proclivity toward control, self-care and connectivity can help make disease prevention and self-care a national priority; how new technologies and emerging community-based services can enable us to shift the healthcare focus from hospitals and nursing facilities to home-based care; why establishing a humane and dignified approach to end-of-life care has reached a critical tipping point. 

A New Vision for 21st Century Aging:
Five Critical Course Corrections Needed for a Century of Successful Aging

The 20th century is over – and most solutions to 20th century aging don’t work anymore. Are we prepared for the coming age wave? Can our country afford to have tens of millions of us living to 80, 90 or even 100+? Will existing entitlement programs survive long enough for young generations to reap even part of what they have been paying in? If not, what should they be replaced with? Can our current healthcare system handle the onslaught of chronic degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s? What should the role of medical science play in wiping out late life diseases? Do today’s elderly care about tomorrow’s? What is the new purpose for maturity? Who are the emerging role models of the new aging? Are our leaders capable of distributing limited government resources fairly among many generations, each with its own distinctneeds, styles, fears, complaints, expectations and political priorities? This mind-stretching presentation will explore both the problems that the age wave brings – and their five interlocking solutions.

Optimizing Generational Diversity:
Four Cohorts Rethink Work, Money, Family, Retirement and Success

For the first time in history, four generations of active adults are simultaneously participating in the workforce and marketplace.  Each has its own lifestyle values, attitudes about work and money, means of connecting and communicating, role models and marketplace preferences. 

This high-impact presentation will examine: What key social forces have shaped each generation and produced their distinct, core lifetime characteristics?  What does each generation hope to get from—and give to—their jobs/careers?  How do you manage and motivate each generation, from “encore” workers seeking stimulation and self-worth, to older workers looking for balance and purpose, to mid-career workers trying to reboot their enthusiasm for a longer and more demanding worklife, to young workers struggling to enter the workforce during tough economic times.  How does each measure success?  

This presentation can focus on how to attract and retain valuable talent and enhance productivity through the creative use of flexible work arrangements, innovative learning, mentoring and sponsoring opportunities, sabbaticals, retraining, re-careering, flex-retirement, and creative compensation and benefits programs.  Alternatively, it can orient toward the most effective ways to reach out to—and connect with—Millennials, Gen Xers, Boomers and members of the Silent Generation.

How the Modern Family Is Transforming Aging, Retirement and Community

We are all familiar with families like the Cleavers or the Simpsons—Dad, Mom, and 2.5 kids happily living under one roof in the suburbs.  But over the past 100 years, significant demographic and economic changes have dramatically transformed the American family and communities across the country. We no longer live in a world where most people are the member of a “nuclear family.”  How is today’s modern family—or post-nuclear family—different? How do—and will—family changes impact health and care needs, the workforce, housing, legacy, leisure, social services, and financial planning?  What are the implications for businesses and aging service providers?  How do we navigate the potentially complicated relationships and compelling challenges faced by modern families in retirement and later life, such as blending families together and bridging the miles between relatives living in faraway communities?  This presentation covers four trends that, in concert, have transformed and continue to profoundly influence today’s families:  Unprecedented longevity, family complexity, financial interdependence, and women’s rising influence.