Rebuilding Wealth, Updating Beneficiaries, and Reclaiming Financial Confidence
When Christine’s 24-year marriage ended, she received the matrimonial home, half of the RRSP assets, a portion of her ex-husband’s pension commuted value, and a lump-sum equalization payment. On paper, she had received a fair settlement. In practice, she had no idea what to do with any of it, had never managed the household finances, and was terrified.
She came to VAWAM eight months after the divorce was finalized, after realizing that the money sitting in her bank account was losing real value every month it sat uninvested, that her beneficiary designations still named her ex-husband on every account, and that her financial future was entirely in her own hands for the first time in her adult life.
The VAWAM Approach
We began with what Christine needed first — clarity and a financial picture she could understand and trust. Not jargon. Not products. A clear statement of where she stood, what she had, and what her options were.
The beneficiary audit came first. It was urgent and it was free. Ex-husband’s name was removed from the RRSP, the newly transferred pension assets, and the life insurance policy. New beneficiary designations — directing assets to her adult children — were documented and filed with each institution. This one step, done within weeks of our first meeting, protected the entire settlement from passing to the wrong person in the event of Christine’s death.
Her RRSP assets — now consolidated from both her own contributions and the transferred portion from the equalization — were reviewed for appropriate allocation. She was 52, with a likely 35-year investment horizon. The portfolio was far too conservative for her situation — an artifact of being constructed around a much older investor’s profile. Working with a CIRO-registered advisory partner, we designed an age-appropriate, diversified allocation that balanced growth with the emotional reality that Christine needed to trust the plan and not panic through volatility.
The home equity was addressed. Christine had received the home — worth $870,000 — as her primary asset. We modeled three scenarios: retain and rent a portion, sell and downsize and invest the proceeds, or retain and draw on it in retirement through a reverse mortgage at the appropriate time. The analysis supported retaining the home in the medium term, downsizing at approximately age 62, and redirecting the net proceeds into the investment portfolio at that point.
The equalization lump sum was invested systematically over six months using a dollar-cost averaging approach, taking the emotion out of the market timing decision.
We also established Christine’s CPP entitlement — which was meaningful, given her own modest employment history was supplemented by the CPP credit-splitting available in Ontario on divorce — and projected her full retirement income picture at both 62 and 65.
The Outcome
Christine’s net worth is growing again for the first time in years. Her beneficiaries are correct. Her investment portfolio is appropriately positioned. Her retirement income is projected at $74,000 annually in today’s dollars at age 65 — comfortable, sustainable, and entirely hers. More importantly, she is financially literate in a way she was not before. She understands her accounts, her statements, and her plan.
Her words: “I went from feeling completely overwhelmed and dependent to feeling like I actually understand my own financial life. I didn’t think I’d get there.”
What This Means for You
Divorce is a financial event as much as it is a personal one. The decisions made in the months immediately after a settlement — beneficiary updates, investment deployment, tax elections — have lasting consequences. VAWAM meets clients wherever they are and builds from there.