Word: aarp
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That growing economic power gives AARP options it never had before. For years, it backed investment funds through a traditional financial-services company but increasingly grew frustrated with the performance and goals. Last year, after being turned down by more than two dozen investment firms, it created its own no-load investment funds. They have a clearly written prospectus and small minimum investment of $100. The funds' advisers are rare in the business in that they are paid salaries, not commissions. The funds have attracted $36 million so far, outpacing the $24 million average of other new funds...
...organization can retail its wares and opinions through the nation's largest-circulation publications, AARP: The Magazine (bimonthly) and AARP Bulletin (monthly), which each have more than 20 million readers. It runs a nationally syndicated radio show, and its Spanish-language magazine, Segunda Juventud (Second Youth), has a circulation...
...AARP is also energizing its highly profitable royalty business, AARP Services Inc. It's a separate for-profit entity that arranges licensing and endorsement deals, renting the AARP name (and discount) on everything from rental cars to medication. AARP Services also provides health insurance with partner United Healthcare. Novelli says AARP Services is "the fuel that runs the jet engine...
...Indeed, AARP wouldn't be the powerhouse it is today without those services. Royalties alone account for $379 million in revenue. That's more than annual membership dues, which bring in $229 million. In total, 40% of AARP's $878 million in 2004 revenue came from royalties and service fees. AARP increased its revenues last year about 10.3%, to $938 million, and spent about a third of that on getting current members or courting potential new ones...
...AARP's torrid growth hasn't come without controversy. Critics have long argued that the organization stretches the concept of nonprofit; an IRS probe in the '80s resulted in the creation of AARP Services--and a $135 million fine...