How does an advisor stay on top of the issues and trends affecting the roughly 76 million Americans who are heading toward retirement? Reading our weekly column on baby boomers is a good start.

Each Wednesday Financial Planning's Senior Editor Paul Menchaca explores the sometimes-complicated, never-boring world of the baby boomers in his Silver Tsunami column. By reading the latest and best white papers, combing through the most enlightening studies, and talking to leading experts, Menchaca helps advisors learn more about what makes this vital market tick.

In "A Savings Attitude Adjustment," Menchaca spoke with the Insured Retirement Institute's Danielle Holland about the need for advisors to acknowledge the elephant in the room: Many of their boomer clients are not prepared for retirement and need help.

Long-term-care insurance is a fairly new development in the financial planning world and many advisors are still learning how to incorporate it into their practice. Menchaca examines this issue in "Boomers Could Face Long-Term-Care Crisis" and "The Alzheimer's Conundrum."

Meanwhile, Michael Sullivan, the co-founder of Charlotte, N.C.-based 50-Plus Communications Consulting, gives tips on marketing to baby boomers in "Getting Real With Boomers."

For further reading, visit www.financial-planning.com/columns/silver_tsunami.html to access all of the articles in the Silver Tsunami archive. If you have an idea for a future topic, contact the author at Paul.Menchaca@SourceMedia.com.