RBC Wealth announces partnership with National Institute on Aging

Toronto-based RBC Wealth Management hopes to deepen its advisors’ estate planning conversations with clients through a three-year partnership with the National Institute on Aging (NIA) announced on Monday.

“We’re bringing information to [advisors’] clients that they may not have access to elsewhere,” Leanne Kaufman, president and CEO of RBC Royal Trust, said in an interview. Advisors, Kaufman said, will now be able to expand the conversations they have with clients by considering matters such as long-term care needs.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a think tank at Toronto’s Ryerson University. It considers aging from a range of perspectives — such as financial, physical, psychological and social wellbeing — to provide cross-disciplinary, evidence-based research to create better public policy and practices related to aging in Canada.

As part of their partnership, RBC and the NIA will create resources for the general public, as well as RBC clients and advisors, that focus on financial literacy and estate planning, elder abuse awareness and planning for mental incapacity and cognitive impairment.

Kaufman noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought these issues to the forefront for many Canadians.

“We’re certainly seeing a much higher awareness among the general public and a lot of focus in the media on topics related to wills, powers of attorney and estate planning — more so than I have ever seen in my career,” Kaufman said.