CharlieCheswick
Junior Member
I live in Toronto Ontario. We've been married 12 years and have no children. We are both retired. We own our house - no mortgage - no credit card debt.
I have no intention of getting a separation or divorce, but I'm frustrated with my position in having little knowledge about our overall financial condition.
My wife is excellent at handling the finances and I've always been happy to let her take care of it. I've asked her to 'talk to' our financial advisor (at a large bank) about my RIF. (I think the RIF is worth about $350,000. My wife is the beneficiary of course.)
She gave me some documents from our advisor that required my signature, allowing her to 'talk to' him about my RIF. While signing I noticed that one of them was a Power of Attorney.
I didn't mention it at the time - and signed. Then thought about it overnight - and asked her to shred the documents in the morning, which she did. I trust my wife, but was hurt that she had me sign a Power of Attorney document, without saying something like, "And you need to sign this Power of Attorney so I can talk to 'Barney' on your behalf." I wanted her to talk to Barney but not make decisions for me.
And with the market going as it has the last few days, I'm becoming more interested in my/our investments.
We have a couple of joint bank accounts - not much in them. My wife has her own RRSPs worth - I guess - maybe $200.000.
My wife has also received an inheritance recently. It's in the range of $2,000,000. I know almost nothing about where it is or how it's held. It's all very hush-hush. I'm her husband but apparently I have 'no need to know.' If I knew it was all in GICs I'd be good with that. But she mentioned off-handedly the other day about our (her?) investment in Merrill Lynch.
(Horrors.)
That, on top of the fact that she tried to slip the Power of Attorney thing in - under the radar - has me concerned.
Any ideas on dealing with this? I feel like a second-class citizen.
Many thanks.....
I have no intention of getting a separation or divorce, but I'm frustrated with my position in having little knowledge about our overall financial condition.
My wife is excellent at handling the finances and I've always been happy to let her take care of it. I've asked her to 'talk to' our financial advisor (at a large bank) about my RIF. (I think the RIF is worth about $350,000. My wife is the beneficiary of course.)
She gave me some documents from our advisor that required my signature, allowing her to 'talk to' him about my RIF. While signing I noticed that one of them was a Power of Attorney.
I didn't mention it at the time - and signed. Then thought about it overnight - and asked her to shred the documents in the morning, which she did. I trust my wife, but was hurt that she had me sign a Power of Attorney document, without saying something like, "And you need to sign this Power of Attorney so I can talk to 'Barney' on your behalf." I wanted her to talk to Barney but not make decisions for me.
And with the market going as it has the last few days, I'm becoming more interested in my/our investments.
We have a couple of joint bank accounts - not much in them. My wife has her own RRSPs worth - I guess - maybe $200.000.
My wife has also received an inheritance recently. It's in the range of $2,000,000. I know almost nothing about where it is or how it's held. It's all very hush-hush. I'm her husband but apparently I have 'no need to know.' If I knew it was all in GICs I'd be good with that. But she mentioned off-handedly the other day about our (her?) investment in Merrill Lynch.
(Horrors.)
That, on top of the fact that she tried to slip the Power of Attorney thing in - under the radar - has me concerned.
Any ideas on dealing with this? I feel like a second-class citizen.
Many thanks.....
