For many families, cognitive decline poses the biggest threat to retirement planning.

The first red flag for Cynthia Tanner, 74, was when she noticed her husband repeatedly forgetting the password to his investment account.

Every time, he would call the bank to reset his password, but would forget it again after a few days. He became convinced that his wealth management team was tampering with his account because there were trades he did not remember making.

The conduct was out of character. Her husband has a master’s degree in business administration, has managed large budgets throughout his career and has always been careful with money.

Then the problems increased manifold. He began sleeping only a few hours at night and began giving donations that came in the mail or appeared on television. In one month, Ms. Tanner said, she gave away more than $1,000, about 15 percent of her monthly pension income.

Her husband was eventually diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects movement, balance and cognitive function.

“I really couldn’t believe it was happening. It didn’t seem real,” said Ms. Tanner, who lives in Cobble Hill, B.C. “How could this really intelligent person be unable to pay the bills?”

Canadians are no longer spending as many years in retirement as they used to

The biggest threat to retirement planning isn’t always falling markets or rising inflation. For many families, this is cognitive decline. Changes in memory, judgment, and decision making can make older adults vulnerable to costly mistakes. Yet warning signs are often subtle, appearing years before formal diagnosis and long before many families have a plan to respond.

A recent survey by Raymond James found that 63 per cent of Canadians are concerned about how cognitive decline could affect their financial future. Yet only 29 percent said they feel strongly connected with their families on inheritance and wealth planning when brain health comes into the conversation.

The survey polled about 750 people between the ages of 30 and 65 and was conducted in February.

a 2026 American studies The Limra Retirement Income Institute found that the average household can lose approximately US$124,000 in wealth as a result of cognitive decline, driven by missed payments, fraud, and poor financial decisions.

Along with making large charitable donations, Ms. Tanner’s husband signed up for services he didn’t need, such as cable subscriptions. As his condition worsened, she moved him into assisted living and began serving as his power of attorney in 2022, giving her the authority to manage his estate and protect his savings.

“It’s heartbreaking to know that your life will never be the same,” he said. “I wish I had enacted the power of attorney sooner.”

By 2050, more than 1.7 million Canadians are expected to suffer from dementia, with an average of 685 individuals diagnosed every day. Alzheimer Society of Canada.

In many cases, people do not recognize the changes in themselves at all.

Even as a physician trained in internal medicine, Jill Rudkowski struggled with her mother’s cognitive decline.

Ms. Rudkowski, 55, first noticed subtle changes in 2024. His mother, who was 80, was forgetting how to use the computer and misplacing things. He then began to stress over the fact that his banking information was being stolen and began donating extensively to charitable organizations.

For most of her life, her mother was careful with her money. “All I could think was, this is not my good mother,” said Ms. Rudkowski, who lives in Burlington, Ontario.

Later that year, his mother said Ms. Rudkowski could take over her role as his power of attorney. “Then I realized how bad things were,” he said. Her mother, who was living alone at the time, fell behind on many bills because she was no longer able to set up automatic payments.

“It took me months to figure out where she was paying and what she was paying for,” Ms. Rudkowski said.

Rob Carrick: How retirement is changing my brain’s view of spending

Changes in financial behavior can be difficult to recognize because they often occur gradually and behind closed doors.

one 2025 Study British researchers analyzed the banking records of more than 16,000 people in the UK who lost their financial capacity after someone eventually took over their finances through power of attorney. Researchers compared this group with approximately 50,000 similar people who had no problems with financial capability.

The study found that people’s banking activity changed years before they had a power of attorney registration. In the decade leading up to that point, people showed gradual changes in their financial behavior, showing that they were becoming less active, less engaged with their finances and more financially vulnerable.

For families, one of the most important protections is to put a power of attorney in place before it’s needed, said Angela Casey, partner at estate litigation firm Casey & Moss LLP. She regularly sees the consequences when families fail to plan ahead.

Without a power of attorney, family members may have to apply to the courts for guardianship before they can make financial decisions on someone’s behalf. This process is usually expensive, emotionally difficult and longer than having a power of attorney in place.

There is also often a need to prove through formal evaluation that the person has lost capacity, he said, which can be difficult if the person does not think they have experienced cognitive decline and refuses to be evaluated.

Leanne Kauffman, chair and chief executive of the RBC Royal Trust and board member of the Women’s Brain Health Initiative, said families often underestimate the financial burden that can arise from caring for someone with cognitive decline.

For Joy Arfin, her caregiving responsibilities increased after her father died in 2017. Although he did not notice it at first, his mother, Sarah, was showing signs of cognitive decline after her husband’s death.

“We didn’t realize how much my father was hiding the decline,” said Mr. Arfin, 59, of Thornhill, Ontario.

His mother’s memory was affected and she began spending heavily on bingo and cigarettes, sometimes more than $100 a day.

Although Mr. Arfin has helped his parents manage their money since childhood, it was very difficult to bear this additional responsibility. “When you take on responsibility for your parents’ financial well-being, you feel that burden, and I felt that pressure.”

His 81-year-old mother was eventually moved to a long-term care facility in Baycrest, Toronto (Mr. Arfin has raised funds for Baycrest). While his mother has savings to help pay for his care, some of the expenses of his care are being subsidized from her own savings.

Mark Shimkowitz, senior wealth advisor at Raymond James, worked with Mr. Arfin and his family to help manage the costs of Sarah’s long-term care. He says counselors can play an important role in identifying risks and helping families prepare before a crisis emerges.

Many families delay having difficult conversations about aging, finances and cognitive decline, she said, even when they know they should. But having these conversations, and putting in place a power of attorney as soon as possible, is the best way to prevent problems in the future.

Along with a power of attorney, families may also want to establish a trusted contact person on financial accounts, Mr. Shimkowitz said. Unlike a power of attorney, a trusted contact person cannot make decisions on someone’s behalf, but a financial institution can contact them if it has concerns about a customer’s well-being or decision-making.

“Good planning doesn’t anticipate the worst,” Mr. Shimkowitz said. “Good planning makes sure you have options.”