Planning Ahead or Living a Day at a Time? A Family History of AD and Retirement Planning

Abstract

Background: We assess whether a family history of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with the odds that healthy family members’ engage in retirement planning activities. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study utilizing individual-level data from the Utah Population Database that have been linked to Medicare records and to responses from a retirement planning survey. Engagement in 3 retirement planning activities was estimated as a function of the number of parents and grandparents diagnosed with AD along with a set of fundamental socioeconomic and demographic covariates. Results: Adults who had a parent with AD were 86% more likely to have seen a professional financial advisor and 40% less likely to plan to retire before age 65. Conclusions: Caregiving costs and/or knowledge of the familial risk of developing AD may provide adult children with a forewarning of their own future financial needs that, in turn, motivates them to engage in retirement planning.