Baby Boomers may not recognize themselves and their surroundings by the year 2028 as a result of an evolving global environment and marketplace.

WESTPORT, Conn., Nov 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) - How boomers adapt as we move into the future is the subject of a new project by the Institute for the Future done in conjunction with the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

Boomers: The Next 20 Years, Ecologies of Risk, paints an extraordinary new picture of boomers as they confront a longer lifespan, the widest rich-poor gap in recent generations, a global energy shortage, new economic realities and a Web-based infrastructure. The conclusion: boomers will, as they have in the past, be resourceful and self-reliant, forming economic, health and social collectives -- and families of choice -- to adapt to the future. 

According to the study, boomers will share the burdens of aging with family or friends, sort of a throwback t o the '60's. They will plan more, work longer and become more entrepreneurial. 

Some key points of the report:

There will be peer caretaking and social care matching services. Boomers will be challenged by greater distance between family members and greater responsibility for the financial well-being of children and grandchildren, contributing to slowed personal wealth accumulation.

Boomers will be the first generation to age in a truly global economy, giving them access to more learning resources, new ways to collaborate, financial products from around the world and healthcare abroad, dubbed "medical tourism."

We will live longer, but will suffer from new chronic diseases and widespread depression from aging, illness and other concerns. Boomers will manage their health differently with biometrics and online tools that will challenge privacy, but will allow them to share and benefit from new information found on all parts of the globe. They will be challenged by elder abuse, anti-boomer backlash and ageist zoning laws.

A degradation of the environment will bring risks from new diseases and fewer sustainable food and energy sources. These challenges will bring food and energy collectives, do-it-yourself products and green technology.

An erosion of the trust people have had in institutions will bring new banking/investment vehicles, peer-to-peer loans and new structures to manage new money. Financial security will be threatened by diminished government and employer safety nets and low personal savings.

"Faced with increasing longevity and the need to have lifetime income, boomers will likely reset their compasses," said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. "An adaptive, disciplined and flexible self is the best asset that they can bring to the future."

(Photo of "Hippie Sign" by flickr user Todd Huffman and "Young Hippies" by Scragz used under a Creative Commons license.)