American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)

is a national non-profit organization that helps people

ages 50 and over improve their lives, achieve

independence, and gain choice and control in ways

that are beneficial and affordable to them and society

as a whole.

FEATURED BOOK: AARP Checklist for My Family

AARP provides consumer advocacy, legal assistance, tax counseling, job training and

placement, health care, prescription drug discounts, and long term care information.

AARP Services is the service and product aspect of the organization whereas the AARP

Foundation is the charitable aspect of the organization.

AARP was founded in 1958 by a retired educator, Ethel Andrus, PhD, as an outgrowth of

the National Retired Teacher Association (NRTA), which had been formed in 1947. Her

motivation was to promote productive aging and the need for health insurance for retired

teachers. NRTA is now part of AARP. Despite the name of the organization, members do

not need to be retired to join.

There are over 40 million members in AARP, which makes it one of the largest member

organizations in the United States and be a very powerful lobbying group on the state

and national level. However, the organization claims to be non-partisan.

Those who are interested can learn more by visiting the AARP website.