Another reason to market to Boomer women: They are buying for their grown children.

In a recent VibrantNation.com survey, we asked our members (smart, successful Boomer women) about how they are caring for their adult children (21+) and grandchildren. The highlights were dramatic:

• 44% report that the economy has led them to spend more than they anticipated to support their adult children.
• More than one-quarter are paying for those children’s housing costs (29%) and everyday living expenses (26%).
• 17% are paying for their adult children’s healthcare and education costs.
• 35% are using funds set aside for their own future and retirement to help those adult children.
• 37% have adult children living at home.

These numbers represent an important trend, and a trend that will not be reversed quickly. Boomer women are now making purchase decisions not just for themselves, their spouses and their aging parents; they are making many of the same decision for the grown children and grandchildren under their roof. Yet I don’t see marketers addressing this woman as the Chief Purchasing Officer of not just one household, but many.

How might marketers address these changes and the new sandwiched Boomer woman? Here are a few ideas:

• Phone service. Wireless carriers advertise group and family plans for parents of teens. Why aren’t the same carriers advertising plans for the Boomer who may be paying the bill for her own cell phone, selecting a phone for her mother, and also funding the phone plan for her adult child and/or grandchildren? One of the large carriers should address this sandwiched Boomer with a plan that addresses her complex needs.
• Financial planning. If 35% of women over 50 with assets set aside for retirement are using those funds to help their children, how will it affect her own financial planning? A financial institution should address this aspect of her life directly, and help her manage the future while addressing her family’s needs in this unexpected present.
• Healthcare. Health insurers are starting to do a better job serving women over 50 with individual plans, but are they considering how this woman could unlock the door to her entire family? She may influence her aging parent’s decision on a Medicare Plan B provider. And if she’s one of the 26% of Boomer women who pay healthcare costs for her adult children, insurers may want to deliver packaged services that help her do all three more efficiently.
• Credit cards. Like wireless carriers, credit card companies recognize that parents want to add children in high school and college to their plans. But if 17% of parents are paying daily living expenses for their adult children as well, credit card companies need to find new ways to serve the woman over 50 and her family. She may want to earn her own miles or points for paying her children’s expenses; and she may want to see what they’re spending her money on.
• Housing. If 37% of Boomer women have an adult child living with them, how many of those children will remain for a long time, and how will that affect the family’s housing needs? (We may be returning to the era of “All in the Family,” where a young married couple lived under their parent’s roof for years.) Homebuilders have addressed the fact that the Boomer woman’s parents may be living with her, but they may need to help her find room for her grown children (and their children) as well.

Caregiving for an older parent is exhausting work; so is caregiving for grown children – in part because you never know when either will end.

A woman facing this new terrain will reward companies that recognize her new role as a sandwiched bill-payer and help simplify that work so she can go about making the most of her own rich life.