Howard Kaplan: Founder

Howard E. Kaplan,
CAPP, CDYL, CPM, CPA (retired), Harvard MBA, University of Michigan BBA (LinkedIn)

By the time I hit 50, I’d been working with, and planning for, people’s retirements for decades, in the early days including some big named firms like Deloitte, GE Financial, CIGNA Financial etc.

But something was missing. If I really care about the people I work with, I care about their life, I care about what they really want out of life, not just about their financial security.

But there were few programs to help them plan for, or think through, those non-financial aspects.
Since retirement planning financially is about how many years you have left, the increasing lengths of human lifespans definitely became an important focus. But QUANTITY of life without the QUALITY can become people’s greatest fear.

So what defines what “quality” of life is for people?  And how do we get them there?  Could we deliver heath, happiness and prosperity,  not just financial prosperity, but the notion of emotional prosperity as well?

So I focused on studies in positive psychology, longevity and aging, life design and much more, through some of the top universities, like Stanford, Harvard, Penn, Columbia, and Michigan.

Putting in my 10,000 hours towards mastery led to me to develop Designing What’s Next as a vehicle to help people design what they want in the second half of life and help them get there.  And in an increasingly uncertain world, we can see that more and more people are looking for a different approach to retirement planning.

Working on yourself, by yourself, is hard for everyone. When people do things for the first time they make a lot of mistakes. That’s why most people need leadership and collaboration.

But I cannot do this alone, so let’s meet my talented team and advisors - Meet the Team