Is AARP Looking Out For You?
Think about AARP and what comes to mind? Travel discounts for geezers? Magazine covers sporting 1970s-era supermodels in varying states of preservation? A graybeard lobby threatening instant unemployment for any politician who disses Social Security?
AARP is all those things, but it's also a mammoth financial-services provider. It sells mutual funds, credit cards, annuities, and all manner of insurance to the tune of over $631 million a year in revenue. The sales pitch is persuasive: As a 40-million-member goliath untainted by the profit motive, it can wield economies of scale and expertise to deliver great, trustworthy deals in consumer finance. Unfortunately, that's an image AARP hasn't always lived up to in the past.
We've taken a look at AARP's full menu of financial offerings to see how true the organization is to its members. We interviewed financial-services experts, spoke to policyholders and called the AARP consumer phone lines. Our conclusion: AARP deserves credit for cleaning up its act, junking its expensive and inferior offerings and replacing them with much better choices. Today's AARP insurance policies and mutual funds are rarely the least expensive, but they are quite competitive. And in some cases, the policies not only are good deals, they also come with features that people over 50 will find particularly useful.
Before buying anything AARP is selling, read our analysis to see whether you should become a customer.
- Mutual Funds
- Life Insurance and Annuities
- Auto and Homeowners Insurance
- Health and Long-Term Insurance
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