Women & Wealth: Reflections on the 56th Floor

It was our pleasure to host this exclusive event atop CIBC's Head offices in downtown Toronto, and it was inspiring and thought provoking!

Our featured speaker, Sarah Widmeyer, covered many topics related to Women and their Wealth alongside the often overlooked intersection of women's health and wellbeing.

Some interesting statistics highlighted:
 

• Did you know the average age a woman becomes a widow is 56.¹
   
• Did you know that women are more likely to have Alzheimer's vs men: Over 70% of Alzheimer's patients are women.²
   
• Drugs impact women differently than they do men and yet from 1960-1980 there were male only drug trials. 2016 Article in the journal of Scientific Reports found that "among 668 drugs of the most frequent 20 treatment regimens in the US, 307 drugs have sex differences in adverse drug events."²
   

Wealth issues facing women:
 

• Women control $1.1 trillion of wealth in Canada. Women will be exclusively in charge of managing the assets for an average of 16 years following the death of their husbands.³
   
• Women's average life expectancy is 83 years – there is longevity risk as women will have to make wealth last longer.⁴
   
• Financial security is a key concern for women: Will I have enough? What do I do with my wealth? What is our family's legacy?
   
• Only 52% of Canadians report they have a Will: a Will is an important first step but it is not a plan.⁵
   
• 35% of Canadians have done nothing at all to plan for their wealth transfer.⁵
   
• Only 1/3 of beneficiaries know they are named in a Will. 39% of potential inheritors have not had a discussion with parents about their Will.^6,7
   

Five Tips on getting started:
 

1. Designate a Team of Professionals
 

2. Draw up a Will
 

3. Establish Powers of Attorney

• For Property
• For Personal Care

4. Set, Review and Update your Plan regularly

• Review at least every 3 – 5 years
   

5. Share the Plan with your family.
 

For further information on Women's Brain Health Initiative, please go to their website.
https://womensbrainhealth.org/

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1. Census Canada, 2012
2. July Paradi & Paulette Fillion, 2016
3. Boston Consulting Group, 2009
4. Statistics Canada, 2012
5. RBC Wealth Transfer Report
6. Investor Economics
7. Investor Economics

Schroeder Wealth Management Group