Why Early Planning for Brain Health Matters Now
How cognitive change ripples through family finances
As Canadians live longer, many families remain unprepared for the financial consequences of declining brain health. The Alzheimer Society of Canada estimates that 771,939 Canadians were living with dementia in January 2025, and that number is projected to rise to nearly 1 million by 2031. As brain health challenges become more common and dementia numbers rise, so does the need for earlier conversations about financial decision-making, caregiving and legacy planning.
The Raymond James Brain Health and Financial Planning Guide, developed in collaboration with Baycrest Foundation, helps Canadians understand how cognitive decline can affect financial decision-making, caregiving, family finances, and legacy planning. It combines Baycrest’s brain health expertise with Raymond James’ financial planning perspective to provide families with a practical framework for earlier conversations and more informed planning.
As Dr. Allison Sekuler, President and Chief Scientist at the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, notes in the Raymond James Brain Health and Financial Planning Guide, “Brain health is shaped across our entire lives. The earlier we understand and address risks to brain health, the greater our ability to improve outcomes, not only for individuals, but also for families navigating complex financial and caregiving decisions.”
Why pressure is building
Subtle changes in memory, attention and executive function can affect how people assess risk, manage money and follow through on important tasks, well before a formal diagnosis. At the same time, Canadian families are navigating a major intergenerational transfer of wealth, rising caregiving demands and mounting pressure to fund care privately when public systems fall short.
According to The Brainwell Institute, Canada’s National Dementia Strategy remains under-resourced relative to peer countries, leaving families to shoulder more of the burden for prevention, caregiving and planning. In that context, early planning is less a nice-to-have than a necessary safeguard for independence, family stability and long-term financial resilience.
When brain health affects financial decisions
The Raymond James Brain Health and Financial Planning Guide explains that financial capability depends on memory, attention and executive function. These same capacities support paying bills, monitoring accounts, filing taxes and making sound judgments. When those abilities begin to change, the impact may appear as missed payments, confusion about assets, unusual withdrawals, changes in spending habits or even unexpected revisions to a will or power of attorney.
A planning framework for families
To make the issue practical, the Raymond James Brain Health and Financial Planning Guide organizes planning into four stages: Prepare, Concern, Diagnose and Legacy. The framework reflects how brain health and financial planning often intersect before a crisis forces the conversation.
- Prepare: Put documents, decision-makers and care preferences in place early, while choices are still broad and families have time to think clearly.
- Concern: Early warning signs often appear before families recognize the pattern, making this the point at which small changes deserve attention rather than dismissal.
- Diagnose: As health realities become clearer, the financial implications become harder to ignore, and families may need to revisit authority, care costs and planning assumptions.
- Legacy: Legacy planning is about more than inheritance – it also reflects care, fairness, family harmony and the practical realities of support.
The cost families face
Raymond James experts note that part-time home care can cost tens of thousands of dollars annually, intensive care can exceed $100,000 per year, and round-the-clock home care can reach $300,000 or more in some cases. These costs can quickly alter retirement assumptions, gifting intentions, and the amount ultimately preserved for the next generation.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reports that caregivers and care partners of people living with dementia may typically provide 24.5 hours of care per week and can incur roughly $1,000 in out-of-pocket costs per month, before accounting for lost income or career disruption.
Caregiving often falls to people in midlife who are balancing careers, children and aging parents. Women represent about 54 per cent of caregivers, and many families absorb significant unpaid labour and emotional strain.
Cognitive decline can also alter the timing and structure of gifting, create tension among siblings, shift assumptions about what parents can afford to leave behind, and strain family communication at the very moment clarity matters most.
What early planning changes
The growing scale of dementia, the rising burden on caregivers and the lack of adequate public preparedness all point to a system that is not keeping pace. As these pressures intensify, the consequences are increasingly borne by families, who quickly see health challenges translate into financial strain. Brain health now sits squarely at the intersection of health policy, caregiving and wealth stewardship, making earlier, more coordinated planning not just prudent but essential.
Early planning is not about assuming the worst; it is about preserving choice, reducing uncertainty and avoiding rushed decisions. As cognitive decline begins to affect families sooner than many anticipated, the question is no longer whether brain health will shape financial outcomes, but how quickly. Aligning care needs with financial, legal and legacy considerations is becoming a defining challenge for individuals, families and policymakers alike.
References
- Alzheimer Society of Canada. Dementia numbers in Canada.
- Raymond James and Baycrest Foundation. Brain Health and Financial Planning Guide (2026).
- The Brainwell Institute. Mind the Gap (2025).
- Canadian Institute for Health Information. A dementia caregiver's perspective on health care trajectories.
- Canadian Caregiving Alliance. Caring in Canada.
- Canadian Institute for Health Information. Unpaid caregiver challenges and supports.