“To the extent that there is a disconnect between parents and their grown children
on these financial topics, our data show that families can look to mom to help
bridge that gap,” says Lauren Brouhard, senior vice president of retirement in
Fidelity’s Personal Investing unit.
Oh the dreaded “talk.” Where do you start? Who should you approach first, Mom or Dad? Experts suggest starting the money and finances “talk” with Mom.
Fidelity Investments specifically suggests that moms are the best source of open
dialogue, even when it comes to the “money talk.” In fact, MarketWatch recently considered this in an article titled “In family-money talks, start with mom.”
A summary of the numbers from that article:
In the survey of 975 parents and 152 adult children, 64% of mothers said it was “not at all
difficult” to start a conversation with an adult child about their finances;
only 54% of fathers felt the same way. In addition, 79% of women, versus 69% of
men, reported having had “comprehensive discussions” with their adult children
about estate planning or wills. The same was true of 66% of women vs. 56%
of men about health and elder-care topics and 70% of women vs. 55% of men about
running out of money in retirement.
Although there are many reasons why moms might be the best to approach, most of them are mere conjecture. More important, however, is the reality that senior parents really do not enjoy
talking about their finances. That is understandable.
All that noted, “the talk” needs to be had, sooner rather than later.
Reference: MarketWatch (May 7, 2013) “In family-money talks, start with mom”
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