Pets and Air Miles: How retirement planning is changing


If you’re past a certain age, chances are good you’ve started to think seriously about retirement, and you’ve started to plan for the financial side of it, as well. Some of the details to consider include pensions and income, medical expenses, as well as a possible move into an assisted living community.

But according to a recent article, retirement planning and estate planning is changing with new technologies and new priorities, and is causing many Baby Boomers and seniors to re-evaluate where their money should go.

As reported in the Ottawa Citizen, a new survey from the BMO Retirement Institute has found that pets and caregiving are two new rapidly growing areas of retirement and estate planning.

Technology is also being felt in this area, with the BMO survey finding that, in Canada, 36 per cent of respondents said they would be including some digital assets in their estate, such as frequent flier miles and grocery points, the newspaper quoted BMO executive Tina Di Vito as saying.

“If there's no mention of it in the estate, there's no legal obligation to the beneficiaries to provide that care,” Di Vito said.

With North Americans living longer than before, the importance of both retirement and estate planning becomes critical, and everyone needs to research their options and plan in advance.