AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is a lobbying group that engages at the state, local, and federal levels on a range of issues ostensibly affecting older adults, with a particular focus on health care. AARP also has extensive business interests, including in health insurance and brand licensing. As of 2018, AARP claimed to have 38 million members, making it the largest interest group in America. The group is among the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States, having generated approximately $11 billion in revenue in 2024, with the organization’s CEO earning over $2.8 million in annual compensation that year. The organization operates a for-profit arm, AARP Services Inc., which houses some of the group’s overtly commercial activities, and a foundation arm, the AARP Foundation, which does not engage in lobbying and has received significant government grant funding. ^{1 2 3 4}

AARP is generally considered to be left-of-center. It is a frequent supporter of left-leaning health care policy and has resisted Republican-led efforts to reform entitlement programs such as Social Security. AARP has described itself as “a champion for social change” with an “ambitious social agenda.” The vast majority of political contributions by AARP employees in the 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections went to Democratic candidates and affiliated groups. ^{5 6 7 8 9 10}

AARP, the nonprofit entity, is the parent organization of two wholly owned for-profit subsidiaries, AARP Services, Inc. and AARP Financial, ¹¹ which generate revenue from insurance products, marketing deals, and other products and services offered to members. ¹² In 2024, AARP reported total operating revenue of $10.97 billion, largely driven by royalties from insurance partnerships, including a $9 billion payment from UnitedHealthcare to sell Medicare products. ¹³

Background

AARP was founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, a retired educator from California. It evolved from the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA), which Andrus had established in 1947 in part to promote health insurance for retired teachers. ¹⁴

Instrumental in AARP’s evolution from the NRTA was Leonard Davis, the founder of the Colonial Penn Group of insurance companies. ^{15 16} “60 Minutes” reported in 1978 that Davis devised AARP as a marketing device for his insurance business after he met Ethel Percy Andrus in the late 1950s. Davis then ran AARP until the 1980s, promoting its image as a non-profit advocate of retirees in order to sell insurance to members. ¹⁷

Early Growth

The association’s explosive growth came under Cyril F. Brickfield, who took over in 1967 when the group claimed one million members. Under Brickfield, AARP lowered its eligibility age in 1984 to 50 from 55, causing membership to grow rapidly. By the time Brickfield stepped down in 1987, membership was claimed at 28 million. ¹⁸

Membership also grew as the U.S. population steadily aged in the latter decades of the 20th century. Horace B. Deets, AARP’s executive director for much of the 1990s, told an interviewer, “The demographics are on our side.” ¹⁹

Disputes over Non-Profit Status

In the 1990s, the United States Senate investigated AARP’s non-profit status. Then-U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-WY), at the time-chairman of the United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, questioned the organization’s tax-exempt status, alleging the organization had learned to “gimmick” nonprofit laws to benefit its “vast business empire” and lobbying machine. ²⁰

In 1994, AARP settled a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over its business income through insurance sales, paying $135 million in back taxes and penalties. ²¹ As part of the settlement, AARP also spun off a commercial subsidiary, AARP Services Inc., to house its insurance businesses and grow its other service offerings. Steve Zaleznick, AARP’s general counsel from 1990 to 1997, was named chief executive of the new for-profit subsidiary. ²²

Expansion of Membership Base

The acronym “A.A.R.P.” originally stood for the American Association of Retired Persons, but in 1999 the organization officially changed its name to “AARP” to reflect that its membership and focus were no longer exclusive to retirees. ²³ AARP changed its membership requirements to do away with all age restrictions, making it possible to gain full membership at any age to take advantage of AARP-negotiated discounts for travel, dining, entertainment, and shopping. ²⁴

Activities and Reach

AARP has interests in insurance, lobbying, media, travel, charity, real estate, and more. Dale Van Atta, a journalist who has investigated the organization, says AARP is “really a Fortune 500 company that sidelines as a lobbying organization for the Washington staff.” ²⁵

Business Interests

The largest share of AARP’s income comes from royalty fees. ³

In 2023, according to AARP’s consolidated financial statements, the organization took in $1.1 billion from royalties for the rights to use AARP’s intellectual property, paid by commercial providers of products, services, and discounts for AARP members. Meanwhile, AARP also brought in $293 million from membership dues, $128 million from publication advertising, $89 million in grant revenue (mostly from the U.S. government), and $51 million from independent contributions, contributing to a total operating revenue of $1.74 billion. ²⁶

In 2025, it was reported that AARP received $9 billion in royalties from UnitedHealthcare in 2024 as part of an agreement to continue selling AARP-branded Medicare products, according to updated financial statements posted on the advocacy group’s website. ¹³

In 2011, the House Ways and Means Committee issued an investigative report titled, “Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn’t Know” that calls attention to the group’s lucrative business dealings. ³ Then-U.S. Representative Wally Herger (R-CA), a coauthor of the report, stated, “The facts show that AARP no longer operates like a seniors’ advocacy organization. Instead it more closely resembles a for-profit insurance company.” ²⁷

Lobbying

AARP has a long history of lobbying at the federal, state, and local levels, though the totals it has spent on traditional lobbying have declined from a peak of $36 million in 2005 to $8.2 million in 2018. ²⁸ However, the organization also spends heavily on political advertising and grassroots campaigns to support its preferred legislation. ^{29 30}

AARP’s federal lobbying expenditures averaged approximately $12 million annually from 2019 to 2024, with a focus on health care, Social Security, and prescription drug pricing issues. ³¹

Media Production

Its monthly print publication, AARP the Magazine, reportedly had the largest circulation of any magazine in the United States as of 2019. ³²

The organization also produces radio and television programs and has a book division. For example, “Prime Time Radio,” hosted by broadcaster Mike Cuthbert, is a one-hour weekly interview program that focuses on the interests and concerns of Americans aged 50 and older. The program is heard on radio stations mainly in the United States. ³³

Leadership

Myechia Minter-Jordan became AARP’s chief executive officer in November 2024, succeeding Jo Ann Jenkins. Minter-Jordan, a physician, previously worked as president and CEO of the Dimock Center, a community health center in Boston, and held leadership roles at Johns Hopkins Medicine and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. She earned $400,117 in compensation in November and December in 2024. ³⁴

Jenkins, who served as CEO from 2014 to 2024, previously held positions as chief operating officer of the Library of Congress and president of the AARP Foundation. She earned $2.75 million in compensation in 2024. ^{34 26}

As of 2019, AARP was employing several former staffers of Democratic candidates and officials. Then-executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond worked for many years in Democratic administrations and for Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill. ³⁵ Then-executive vice president and chief of staff Kevin Donnellan joined the organization after serving as executive assistant to former U.S. Representative Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY). ³⁶

Criticism has been leveled at the salaries earned by AARP leadership. According to AARP’s 2017 IRS annual return, Jenkins earned total compensation of $1,365,574. Including Jenkins, seven officers earned more than $500,000 per year and 14 earned more than $400,000 in 2017. ³⁷ In 2023, nine executives earned over $500,000, with total executive compensation exceeding $10 million. ²⁶

In 2025, Annette Franqui became chair of AARP’s board of directors, the first Hispanic individual to hold the position. Franqui previously served on the boards of Forest Laboratories and the Educational Testing Service. Other board members added in 2022, included Alan Murray, Marie Quintero-Johnson, and David Windley. ^{38 39}

Lobbying Activities

AARP was an active supporter of Obamacare throughout the 2009 to 2010 legislative session during which the law was debated and ultimately passed. Emails released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2012 revealed that AARP’s top leadership was in regular contact with Obama administration senior officials to discuss strategy of how to pass the legislation. ⁴⁰

One email showed AARP senior vice president David Sloane sending the administration “as promised” his “message points” on Medicare. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Nancy-Ann DeParle assured him “I think you will hear some of your lines tomorrow” in then-President Barack Obama’s speech. ⁴⁰

In August 2009, AARP unveiled a national advertising campaign in support of Obamacare, to ensure that “every member of Congress knows the 50-plus community wants action to fix what’s wrong with healthcare.” ⁴¹ AARP made this claim despite weeks of daily internal polling showing that its members opposed the president’s plan. ⁴²

The Wall Street Journal described AARP support for Obamacare as: ⁴¹

“AARP worked through 2009-10 as an extension of a Democratic White House, toiling daily to pass a health bill that slashes $716 billion from Medicare, strips seniors of choice, and sets the stage for rationing. We know that despite AARP’s awareness that its seniors overwhelmingly opposed the bill, the “nonpartisan membership organization” chose to serve the president’s agenda.”

Some have suggested that AARP was financially motivated in its support for Obamacare. AARP earned considerable income from contracts with UnitedHealthcare in 2009 and 2010, at the height of the Obamacare debate. These contracts totaled over $1 billion. ³

Some of the contracts included royalty payments allowing UnitedHealthcare to use the AARP brand on its marketing materials. UnitedHealthcare also contracted with AARP to provide “Medigap” supplementary policies, which pay for what traditional Medicare doesn’t. Beneficiaries pay their Medigap premiums directly to AARP’s Insurance Plan, which retains almost 5 percent of premiums. ³

Since 2020, AARP has continued to advocate for left-of-center health care policies, including aggressive campaigns to lower prescription drug prices. In 2019, the organization launched a multimillion-dollar effort featuring what the organization described as a “strike force” of white-haired activists and ominous television advertisements that was reported as an “all-out attack” on the pharmaceutical industry. ⁴³  AARP supported the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and lobbied for its passage. ⁴⁴

AARP opposed Republican-led efforts to reform Medicare and Social Security during the first Trump administration, including proposals to raise the retirement age or adjust benefit formulas. ⁴⁵ In 2021, AARP filed an amicus brief urging a federal appeals court to preserve the Affordable Care Act. ⁴⁶ The organization has also advocated for expanded caregiver tax credits and state-level protections for older workers, aligning with Democratic and left-of-center priorities.  ⁴⁷

AARP does not make direct political contributions or endorse candidates, but its employees have donated overwhelmingly to Democrats. From 2019 to 2024, over 95 percent of identifiable political donations from AARP staff went to Democratic candidates and committees, including significant sums to the 2020 Biden campaign, 2024 Harris campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. ⁴⁸

The AARP’s support of left-of-center healthcare policies, particularly the Affordable Care Act, has led to the growth of rival organizations that have positioned themselves as right-of-center alternatives to the organization, including the Association of Mature American Citizens, the American Seniors Association, and 60 Plus. ⁴⁵

Controversies

In 2025, AARP faced criticism after receiving a $9 billion payment from UnitedHealthcare, its longtime insurance partner, which critics described as a “tax-funded bribe” to maintain the partnership amid scandals involving UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage plans. The payment contributed to AARP’s record revenue in 2024 and raised questions about conflicts of interest, as AARP endorses UnitedHealthcare products that have been accused of fraud, overbilling, and denying care to seniors. ^{49 50}

From 2020 through 2024, AARP was sued three times by members alleging deceptive practices related to royalty fees on insurance products, claiming the fees functioned as undisclosed commissions that increased costs for seniors. ⁵¹

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