KNOW: Seven out of ten Americans foresee themselves either working full-time, working part-time or jumping back and forth between periods of work and leisure when they retire, according to Age Wave’s new study, “Retirement at the Tipping Point.” For Boomers, “retirement” is not a one-time event. It is a phase of life.

DO: Throw out the retirement-calculator mentality. Ask your clients how they see their retirement years unfolding. Do they aspire to quit work outright, or do they prefer merely to tilt the work-leisure life balance a notch or two towards leisure? The longer your clients work, and the longer they delay enrolling in Social Security, the more secure their retirement will be.

KNOW: Seniors will get no cost of living adjustments to their social security payments this year, and likely none next year. But health care costs continue to rise inexorably.

DO: Send news clips to clients and ask them if they’d like to review how well protected their retirement assets are against inflation — health care inflation in particular — and what options they have. The Social Security COLA issue is urgent for most members of the Silent Generation, and should be for Baby Boomers.

KNOW: The Generational Money Mindset, while down 25% from two years ago, still shows slow but steady improvement in consumers’ attitudes towards the economy and their personal financial circumstances for the third month running.

DO: When talking to clients, be sensitive to changing attitudes. Don’t assume that the pessimism of the recent past still dominates their thinking. Be open to the possibility that your clients think the future is looking a little less gloomy.