Avoiding the Boomer-Widow Financial Syndrome

We may not want to discuss the subject or even imagine it happening to us, but the sad reality is, it does
happen, and we need to prepare ourselves for when it does. As the Baby Boomer generation gets older,
one partner becomes sick, leaving the other partner financially weak. Known as the Boomer-widow financial syndrome, the widower is faced with financial situations that they do not completely comprehend.

When they do not understand the financial situation, they need to educate themselves —
responsibilities that were not theirs before, but are theirs now. If you do not want to face the boomer-
widow syndrome, you need to learn how to avoid it.

How Can You Avoid the Boomer-Widow Financial Syndrome?
More women than ever have become more educated about their finances, becoming more active in
financial planning, but even then, half of women leave financial planning to their partners. Moreover,
some of them do not even have a lot of financial knowledge. Women can avoid the boomer-widow
financial syndrome by becoming more proactive about their finances and increasing their financial
knowledge. Here are a few things women can do to avoid facing the boomer-widow financial syndrome
when their partner passes away:
 Collect all the financial and estate information, keeping them all in once place such as locked
drawer
 Confirm that they have access to all key bank accounts by ensuring they can access it
 Ensure they do not have to file a lengthy and costly probate process to access their partner’s
estate after their passing
 Visit a reputable financial advisor, as making financial decisions when your partner has just
passed away can cloud one’s judgement, causing them to make wrong decisions
In addition to this, widows of Baby Boomers will need to learn how to manage the household with only
one income and their remaining assets in the long run. Approaching the subject in the beginning is not
easy, but it needs to be done.

To streamline the process and make it easier for you to manage the household and remaining assets,
widows need to place every financial document into a big box and take it to their financial advisor to
help them sort out everything.
Moreover, do not wait until the unfortunate happens to sort out your finances, but you should it now.
You need to take every financial document you have in your house and with your partner take them to
the financial advisor. The financial advisor will ensure everything is in order and it will better for the
widow to manage everything better after their partner passes away.
Another important thing you need to do to better prepare yourself financially after your partner passes
away is to come up with a retirement plan. You can create a retirement fund and open a Registered
Retirement Savings Plan or RRSP to save for retirement. If your partner passes away, you can use the
income coming from their retirement savings plan to sustain you.