00:00:11:14 - 00:00:41:06 Unknown Hi, I'm Catherine. And I'm Gail. And welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined, our weekly online podcast. Visit women over 70.com to learn about how you may become involved. And join Aging Reimagined circle at women over 70.com and enjoy free participation in our online monthly programs. Thank you for listening. And today we're very happy to be talking with Anna Rappaport, age 85. 00:00:41:08 - 00:01:08:01 Unknown She's a retired actuary who is actively engaged in her profession through the Society of Actuaries Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Initiative. Anna is an active volunteer as serves as an advisor on many projects and also as a contractor, researcher and other projects. She's been working for more than 25 years to build relationships between the actuarial community and other retirement professions. 00:01:08:03 - 00:01:13:16 Unknown She continues to write for many publications that deal with benefits and retirement issues, 00:01:13:16 - 00:01:33:08 Unknown and it serves as chairperson of the Society of Actuaries Committee and post retirement Needs and Risks. And she's a board of wiser, the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement. During the period from the early 2000s to the present, Anna shifted from being married and a 00:01:33:08 - 00:01:39:09 Unknown going on cruises and enjoying retirement to being a caregiver and a widow. 00:01:39:11 - 00:01:42:07 Unknown She reports that moving to the admiral at the Lake 00:01:42:07 - 00:01:42:16 Unknown a life 00:01:42:16 - 00:02:09:11 Unknown care community, and Chicago has been one of the best decisions ever made. And as also an artist recently interested in urban sketching. So welcome Anna to women over 70. So we're really happy to have you with us. I want to mention that Laura McKee is a board member of the Admiral at the Lake, and she referred us to you when we met her at the American Society and Aging Conference recently in Florida. 00:02:09:11 - 00:02:45:10 Unknown Thank you. Catherine and Gail. And as you were describing the program, I thought you were describing the residents of the Agora because there are so many women here who have reimagined their lives or who are active, one doing theater productions. Several of us were artists, a number of people who are active in the community in food banks, some who are concerned with immigrants and have helped immigrant families, some who were reading to third graders from a local school and teaching them art. 00:02:45:12 - 00:02:55:00 Unknown The admiral is full of people that make you this definition. And why I'm so happy at the Admiral is partly because those are the people that are here. 00:02:55:00 - 00:03:09:04 Unknown You know, you wrote a piece for retirement Section News back in April of 2025. It was titled what I Have Learned from My Experiences. And you noted that around age 75, you wondered if you were still relevant. 00:03:09:06 - 00:03:33:03 Unknown So how is that going? How do you how do you know if you're still relevant? And what are you doing to make sure that you are? Well, that's a great question because at about 75, I've been doing all this work. I, I've been writing probably 20, 25 pieces a year for different publications, more some years. And I was starting with the disabled care. 00:03:33:06 - 00:03:58:11 Unknown I just doing this because it's my vanity. And then I got a lifetime service award from an employee benefit organization, one that was basically their basic audience was plan sponsors, not actuaries. So that's a way for me. That was a wow. Your work is appreciated not just by your own colleagues, but by the people that we want to use the work. 00:03:58:11 - 00:04:17:20 Unknown Because after all, for all of us doing work, that's just for ourselves is not so good. It's doing work for those other stakeholders that really counts. Since then, I've won for basically for more lifetime service awards. I won the most recent award just, last year. 00:04:17:20 - 00:04:22:21 Unknown right organization set up awards for trailblazers in actuarial science women. 00:04:22:23 - 00:04:51:20 Unknown And I was happy to be one of the first group selected. So I'm still here and busier than ever. The shift that occurred for me is I was you heard I was retired and happy. My husband got progressively disabled for the last five years or so of his life. He was virtually homebound, and I was hiring caregivers, and people were saying, oh, you don't have to keep doing this professional work. 00:04:51:20 - 00:05:19:19 Unknown I was like, that's okay. This is what I want to do. So I was hiring caregivers and balancing my time, and I had this big juggling act of, I do a little professional work. I spend time with them, do a little professional work. I try to take care of myself. And by the time I was pretty worn out and barely managing by the time he died, it 2021 just stood up. 00:05:19:19 - 00:05:46:09 Unknown Four years ago now, and I quickly was able to make the shift from looking backwards to looking forward and not so much looking. Well, yeah, looking forward to surviving and finding a new life. And I actually didn't have any thoughts about moving to the Admiral. And he died in Florida during the pandemic. And my big question, people were like, stay in Florida. 00:05:46:10 - 00:06:14:00 Unknown You have a house here. And the community is wonderful. And the people were wonderful. But I came back up to Chicago to decide, am I going to be a snowbird? So and I was like, oh, I'm back to Chicago. I have to go back to Chicago. It's a great community. Last year. Yesterday I went to see one of the most fantastic dance performances, and I'm doing more of that now that I've improved my mobility, I've to go to see those performances. 00:06:14:05 - 00:06:40:02 Unknown I go to the symphony. I'm very active in Urban Sketchers also. So now I'm doing the last year or so much more than I was before. I've got these projects that I'm working on, and besides the projects I'm working on, I'm doing a lot of art. I had a zebit last year, which was like a like a lifetime retrospective of my gaining. 00:06:40:04 - 00:06:45:08 Unknown I went back my, my art to about the 60s, so it wasn't totally lifetime. 00:06:45:08 - 00:06:54:02 Unknown let me just catch up with you about your painting because Urban Sketchers is it? But you've been painting. You had an exhibit back in the 90s. 00:06:54:04 - 00:07:23:05 Unknown You work going all the way back to the 1960s. And have you always been doing urban sketching or is this. Well, tell us what that is. Okay, that's a great question. The answer is yes, but I didn't know the label. The urban sketching movement, is a movement started by, Gaby Company, from the Pacific Northwest and the United States. 00:07:23:07 - 00:07:49:23 Unknown And it's actually a Facebook. It's a Facebook. And they rumored he decided about 12 or 15 years ago that he wanted to go out and draw, out in a park in a city. If it was a cold, dancey day in a coffee shop, and you want other people to go with him, and he used Facebook to recruit people. 00:07:50:00 - 00:08:26:14 Unknown Well, Gaby, come here on these two is friends has exploded into. I think it's 150,000 or 200,000 people worldwide. There are chapters in almost every city. So what the group is in Chicago is a magnificent chapter in one of the best, which is one of the reasons I came back here. It's a way to say to people that are interested in drawing, we're going to have a meet up, at the Riverwalk in Chicago, and we're meeting at this place at this time, if you want to come draw, draw with us. 00:08:26:16 - 00:08:53:13 Unknown And Chicago has, for example, every year now a weekend seminar that's known more practically all over the world, where you can go for three days in two and a half days and you can go and draw with other people. You have workshops, you have instructors, and there are a bunch of principals. They basically say it's about sharing our work with each other and helping each other with everything. 00:08:53:13 - 00:09:20:10 Unknown That's about sharing what we're doing and helping. So it's good. Just like your podcast. Yeah. So I've become very active in that group, and I've done some teaching for them. I go all the time. I'm just now picking out what I'm going to put in a show for them. So that's that's urban sketching. The reason I say I didn't know what it was, I have painting, I have some sketches that go back into the 60s where I was doing clay. 00:09:20:10 - 00:09:48:20 Unknown They were painting and I some of the original art watercolor classes. I took, we went out on location and we drew and I'd say the big difference between just going on location and drawing and painting, which is plein air painting and they certainly overlap, is the planar painter usually making a pretty finished painting or often is. And, it's it's more of a project. 00:09:48:22 - 00:10:20:00 Unknown The sketcher is doing the same thing, but they may very well be doing it in a sketchbook, or they may not, and they may be doing very quick sketches, but the the urban sketching that is really about bringing people together to be an urban sketch to qualify and also you need to be present. It needs to be something that you drew because you were there versus if I if I go to a coffee shop and take a picture of a photograph and go home and draw. 00:10:20:02 - 00:10:39:24 Unknown It's not urban sketching. If I draw in the coffee shop, I can go home and finish it. But if I do the basic drawing and myself while I'm there, it's urban sketching. It also needs to be if I just draw my coffee, that doesn't count. If I draw my coffee in a little sign on the wall that says coffee shop. 00:10:40:01 - 00:11:03:04 Unknown Coffee, $2. It's over the sketching. So that's that's basically what urban sketching is about. Yes. I love fascinating, fascinating. And then you were going on to, to talk a little bit about, projects that you're involved and things you're involved in now that you've been really enjoying at this point. Well, the most exciting project I did last year, 00:11:03:04 - 00:11:09:13 Unknown I've been doing retirement planning work for a long time, and the same actually is work. 00:11:09:13 - 00:11:31:23 Unknown And we've basically done work that we've called at all times of retirement. We've done research people near retirement and retirees. And then we did some research with recent retirees, retired 15 years or more over age 85. Whereas I'm I'm now doing work with seniors who are, 00:11:31:23 - 00:11:44:17 Unknown close to me, it's the limitations to quite a limited stage, to try to help them remember that if you have all your documents in place and you have a plan, it's a great plan. 00:11:44:19 - 00:12:06:14 Unknown You know, people like, oh, I got that done and I correct them and I say, no, no, no, you got it done the first time you need to update it. And so many people forget to update it. And we made a checklist workbook with with sections in it for first of all seeing this, your passions are updated and you still have passions. 00:12:06:14 - 00:12:30:15 Unknown That's a critical part of it. Then that you're taking care of your health. And our workbook checklist doesn't ask you about whether you have high blood pressure. This it says, do you have a primary care physician? Did you see them, and are you following their advice? You asked them about drugs. Do you know what your drugs are? 00:12:30:17 - 00:13:02:20 Unknown Do you keep these restrictions up to date? Do you have a way to control? How do you keep them? Do you need help. So it's those it's that level of questions. So we have finances, legal issues. All of your documents, support system. Do you have a support system in place? I've been very involved also with Solo Aid, the Solo Soup, and for so many women, even if they don't start out as solos, they become solos pretty quickly. 00:13:02:20 - 00:13:20:20 Unknown you say more about that because that is a topic that's a great interest to many of our listeners. Oh for sure. Well, a solo ager, I was thinking about her solo aged is a solo age who is someone who is alone in a long sense of. 00:13:20:20 - 00:13:22:17 Unknown Her don't have somebody to help me. 00:13:22:17 - 00:13:29:23 Unknown there are a lot of people, they don't have a spouse. They don't have children. They may not have a niece or nephew that will help them. 00:13:29:23 - 00:13:38:06 Unknown They may have a close friend. They may not. So these are these are people that are really alone, and they need to find a support system. 00:13:38:08 - 00:13:41:05 Unknown And there's a major trap for solo agers, 00:13:41:05 - 00:13:44:09 Unknown solo agers who were very competent people often 00:13:44:09 - 00:14:09:02 Unknown that they were great businesspeople or great whatever career they had. And they did really well. But when they become, older than if they start to have memory issues, which many people do or other issues they aren't through here. Do you have a support system in place because they thought, I can do this, you know, here I am, I can do this. 00:14:09:02 - 00:14:28:19 Unknown I'm good. Well, you you were good. You can do this. But you're you're starting to have dementia. And the living at the admiral is a real you get real lessons. I've done quite a bit of work within society. That's actuaries. We have a we have some reports and this. 00:14:28:19 - 00:14:48:18 Unknown when you go in the dining room and you sit with somebody who complains that their dessert is wrong, and you sing this three times and you realize this person can't remember what they ordered by the time dessert and you, you, you learn so much by having these experiences, which has really helped me a lot. 00:14:48:20 - 00:15:10:18 Unknown And so, so arrangers, they need to figure out where to live. They need to figure out how to get a support system. They may become part of a family of choice. And that's something I'm really working on understanding more now is families of choice. And that's an interesting thing too. But I think in the end there was so many families of choice here, different patterns. 00:15:10:18 - 00:15:31:13 Unknown And basically that's the way that people take care of each other. For example, there's one group, I believe there were six people in the group, in this that started doing the pandemic. These six people were alone and they decided we have a commitment to take care of each other, and you can do it. And it's an interesting story. 00:15:31:13 - 00:15:37:07 Unknown It's dramatic how it's played out because, one of the women died last year 00:15:37:07 - 00:15:47:23 Unknown she and her partner previously here. Well, the other the remaining survivors out of the six, 00:15:47:23 - 00:15:56:15 Unknown they go to see that partner every day. Just the same as when somebody went when she was alive. They take care of her. They have a civic responsibility. 00:15:56:17 - 00:16:02:06 Unknown They've made sure that there's somebody handling of financial affairs and 00:16:02:06 - 00:16:03:08 Unknown so on. And so, 00:16:03:08 - 00:16:21:18 Unknown you see what the benefits are, families of choice and you see different ways that people have done it, but versus the way just they have housing support system issues, they may need to hire a professional to be their health care representative. They may need to hire a professional to be their financial representative. 00:16:22:03 - 00:16:39:05 Unknown And Society of Actuaries is about to come out with, there a lot of publications from the Society of Actuaries. There's a high age decision. God, there's a guy just stole away from. So I just said he's going to be coming out within the next probably 2 or 3 months. 00:16:39:05 - 00:16:41:05 Unknown There are. 00:16:41:05 - 00:16:52:16 Unknown 11 the citizen groups that are for people at or nearing retirement or during assignment, there's a lot of research and all these. 00:16:52:20 - 00:17:14:14 Unknown And I've been involved in pretty much most of it. And I'm curious to know in, in the Society of Actuaries is how many women are actuaries today, not just just around number. It seemed to me that actuaries were mostly men. 00:17:14:16 - 00:17:38:02 Unknown I'm going to just trace the history of that a little bit. When I started out, there were very few women actuaries. I mean, we can, you know, you could name them in two hands. Can. And I was, one of the, I think 5 or 6 that have been present over the years. And I did something just recently this. 00:17:38:04 - 00:17:44:16 Unknown But to see how things have changed, I think it's probably a third or more or less is a total. But 00:17:44:16 - 00:18:08:02 Unknown But I checked the boards of the major actuarial organizations, and all of those boards in some other professional organizations had significant representation of women where. So whereas it was that there might have been one, 2 or 3 women on a board and it was a big deal, is it is completely ceased being a big deal. 00:18:08:02 - 00:18:10:17 Unknown So that's extremely gratifying to me. 00:18:10:17 - 00:18:31:09 Unknown so and I would, when you and I talked earlier, I recall saying that you are working on a book. Another book. Is that true? Oh, I am, I'm working on a book, and I'm trying to get my art in a museum, which I have been told you are nuts, but do you check back with me in a year? 00:18:31:09 - 00:18:55:12 Unknown And I. I'm going to say that I have a good chance of doing it, because I'm optimistic. I'm trying to do a book to really tell the story about how I'm aging. Well, because, so many people have said to me personally, you are an inspiration to me, and I feel like it's such an important story to share. 00:18:55:14 - 00:19:46:13 Unknown And actually, pieces of it have been shared a lot already. I did a, program called reboot, rewire, retire, which that does love. That lovely label. Got was stolen from a friend of mine from the Chicago network, the women's group. But it's it's it's upheld very well. Well, I, I've done a lot of meetings around the reboot rewiring retire and I wrote, well, I did a long, piece that was the story my doing it the nerds I view the nerd side view, which is a, very well-respected blog for financial planners and anybody if you want to know about technical changes to 00:19:46:13 - 00:19:50:15 Unknown the law, very anything else? 00:19:50:17 - 00:20:13:14 Unknown And you want you want the quick way to find out and pretty reliable resource then. I love the nerds I view. And I wrote for the nerds. I view this blog, and it got picked up a lot and built on a lot that went up. So in a way, if you look at that article from April in The nerds, I view blood. 00:20:13:16 - 00:20:18:17 Unknown That's that's the kernel of the book. And the book was about it. And, 00:20:18:17 - 00:20:41:21 Unknown but so I'm like, you was it you're an inspiration to me. And, it's like, okay, I need to. I'm I'm in favor of leverage. I need to take this stuff and multiply its impact. And I've been to I've gone under secretaries of labor and Treasury that the stuff we do is really good. 00:20:41:23 - 00:21:04:19 Unknown And what is it that people see about seeing you that they say you're such an inspiration? How and how are you a role model for them? Well, you need to ask them. But I think what I think is that one, I've mentioned a lot of people and they know that, I've been trying to like, sell my art for charity. 00:21:04:21 - 00:21:34:17 Unknown I've been doing a lot of things that I've designed to help others, and I've stayed active. And rather than kind of just going on cruises and having fun, I've a it's really important to have a purpose and to be contributing, one of the fights, there's several of my issues that I'm, I'm sort of involved in 20 year fights about, but, 00:21:34:19 - 00:22:04:01 Unknown People reach retirement age and they're capable of doing a lot and making big contributions and age discrimination. Unfortunately, still alive and well. And I've been trying to fight this and to do what I can to encourage face retirement. And I've written so much about that. But that's one of my big fights. Another one of my big issues is getting better opportunities for older women, which is a kind of subset of the first one. 00:22:04:03 - 00:22:41:17 Unknown And another one that's been going on for years is, doing better for disabled people. Their issues surrounding disabled benefits. There's just lots of issues. And, and disability from all sorts of aspects. When I, I was on the tourist advisory council, a receives the federal pension and benefits law, and, and Congress has established an advisory council to give and give them major issue study, and then make recommendations to them. 00:22:41:17 - 00:23:16:04 Unknown Well, we had we had a study about disability. And it was so interesting because there were there was somebody I was involved in the employee benefits and concern about the employee benefits provisions and the fact that the disability benefits are embedded in defined benefit plans are basically lost when they go to defined contribution. And rather than encouraging that they be there, the oh was that was making it more difficult to do that. 00:23:16:06 - 00:23:36:04 Unknown That was one piece of it. Another piece of it was the concern about how claims were being actually handled in practice. And another piece of it was that partial disability, well, all these things have some validity. And when you put them together, there are so many issues and there's so little awareness, a disability. 00:23:36:04 - 00:23:46:07 Unknown Well, right now I'm feeling like I have to use every minute because I have so much I wanted to accomplish, and I don't know how many years I have to do it. 00:23:46:09 - 00:24:16:18 Unknown So that's what I'm trying to do. And actually, my project for today, which you might be interested in, is I have a really nice balcony, and I've decided to make a little farm on my balcony, I guess, and herbs and Swiss chard and kale. Yeah, well. And a beautiful flower garden, which would just, I say I have. We are in the process of is assembling this as that was the project before I got on the call. 00:24:16:20 - 00:24:30:09 Unknown That's that's great how you have to do a charge and and so are you leading the charge on this? I am leading the charge. While we're on this call, two people are working on the project in my apartment, and it. 00:24:30:14 - 00:24:56:05 Unknown So I ami volunteers here. I like the sound of a balcony in your in your unit. There's a lot of balconies there now and I but I have one of the best apartments. I have two balconies, the front balcony, the one that overlooks Foster Avenue. First of all, because I'm on the second floor in the building, I mean, I, I feel like I live in a tree house. 00:24:56:07 - 00:25:01:20 Unknown I mean, the tree tops on the second floor. I overlook a beautiful garden. 00:25:01:20 - 00:25:19:12 Unknown On the street. So there's a lot going on. It's it's really fun. And that's where my vegetables are. And then on the other side is the building on the east side. I overlooked the very end of Lincoln Park. And that's where mostly my flowers are. 00:25:19:12 - 00:25:25:18 Unknown but sound. So anything else you would like to share with our our audience, our listeners, especially about 00:25:25:18 - 00:25:49:00 Unknown I liked the way you talked about the different phases of retirement, early retirement, middle retirement, long been retired a long term, long time. So anything else that you would want to. Yeah, I know that we, when you're thinking about retirement and planning your life, this again, is not a one and done thing at all. 00:25:49:02 - 00:26:19:14 Unknown It's got to be kept up to date. And when you first retire, you're thinking about, what can I do? How can I make my life valuable? How can I what can purpose? Frequently, people get derailed and have to reprogram by caregiving. If that's extreme, all the time. A big, big failure is the lack of having it, and having a plan for the support. 00:26:19:14 - 00:26:41:24 Unknown That's needed by your parent, your aunt, whoever it is that you're going to be responsible for. Because what happens is it one day there's a disaster? There's a company by the name of cure, right? That is doing things. There's several organizations that are certifying advisors to deal with this as well. That's another thing I've been working on. 00:26:42:01 - 00:27:10:09 Unknown But that's the first phase, is you recently retired, and basically you don't have limitations. The, high high age decision guide deals with these different phases. Then the second phase, you have my limitations, and you need to be working with those limitations as well as building the platform for a lot of limitations. And then you have the a lot of limitations. 00:27:10:11 - 00:27:28:06 Unknown And I would say that's that's a really important thing. It's a really important thing that you have people in place that help you and new powers of attorney or, citizen, you need them 00:27:28:06 - 00:27:44:03 Unknown by oh, there's a big list that the people make. And I would very much push for the several being the single instructions. And you don't tell them what kind of plants you want. 00:27:44:05 - 00:28:13:04 Unknown If you want to, say, plant my garden and I want to roll this kind of spinach and these kind of tomatoes, that's instructions. So people really need to understand no one is going to represent you the way you want. They don't they're not mind readers. So that I would say that's a that's a critical thing. Failure to anticipate and things like choosing a senior housing or, or a community, a life care community like the one I'm in here. 00:28:13:06 - 00:28:28:05 Unknown You want to make those choices early enough and get on waiting lists, because those the, the demographics are such that the the places are going to be full and they have the, they have some of the long waiting lists. The pretty long writing this year. 00:28:28:05 - 00:28:34:20 Unknown if you want it so that. Okay, I think I'm ready now, you may go out there and say, oh, this would be great. 00:28:34:20 - 00:29:02:09 Unknown I'd love to be here. Oh, well, there's a five year waiting list. So you want to, you want to plan ahead for that? You want to find comprehensively and and think about it. And that's, I would say, those who refuse the the pitfalls and, oh, another pitfall that we found is a lot of very older people with dementia. 00:29:02:11 - 00:29:21:20 Unknown They forget to file their tax return so they, they lose interest in filing them. But be aware that it's really important to check up. Did you file your tax returns? Did you keep the information you need so that you can have them covered? If you can't do it to yourself, did you get somebody to do well? 00:29:21:20 - 00:29:39:14 Unknown Yes. It sounds so stupid that I I'll tell you just one one simple story. In the groups I worked with last year, a woman whose husband had died several years ago, she knew she needed to update herself, but she hadn't gotten around to it yet. 00:29:39:14 - 00:29:58:22 Unknown Yeah. Unfortunately, we know other stories like that as well. And I thank you so much for talking with us today. This has been extremely helpful, enlightening. Look forward to learning more about the admiral at the lake. And, the other remarkable women who live there. So thank you. Thank you, Anna. 00:29:58:22 - 00:30:24:17 Unknown And listeners, we'd like to see more of you at our monthly online programs. Make Your Voice Heard, as together we change the conversation about women aging. There's an aging reimagined circle at women over 70.com. And thanks to our sponsor, Production Plus, which is an expert in crafting visuals that not only attract attention but also elevate every moment. 00:30:24:17 - 00:30:29:03 Unknown Visit production plus.com. So thank you.