Women suffer property violence due to the wealth they generate – 11/28/2023 – Market

Women have evolved from being wives or heirs to being wealth creators and decision makers. But, often, the wealth they generate is yet another reason for violence against them, lawyers and financial consultants report.

Today corresponding to 43% of the total employed population in the country, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the female portion of the population has achieved more leadership positions and is already demanding salary parity, but to a large extent it still delegates the management of their own riches to partners. And this leaves them vulnerable to abuse involving their assets.

The issue gained prominence after presenter Ana Hickmann said in an interview last Sunday (26) that she was a victim of property violence, in addition to physical violence and psychological violence already reported. The presenter insinuated that her ex-husband destroyed her assets and accused him of forging signatures.

“When we talk about female financial independence, we talk about a history marked by very recent achievements. Until the 1960s, we women were not allowed to have CPF or bank accounts. And married women needed authorization from their husband to work. This is all extremely violent,” says Carolina Cavenaghi, founder and CEO of Fin4She — a platform that drives women into the job market and connects them with large companies in the financial market

“So, we cannot talk about the current context without looking at this history. The place to make decisions about money was never ours, it was conquered very recently”, he adds.

These remnants of history still make many trust their partner or some other male figure close to them to manage their money.

Cavenaghi says that it is common to hear from friends who are married to financial market professionals that they prefer to leave the money in the hands of their husbands, because they know better how to manage it.

But the CEO of Fin4She encourages, even in these cases, that women have control of their own money, to prevent the man from using financial power as a way of controlling the relationship, or punishing the woman after it ends.

The expert recommends that women, before planning anything related to leadership, think above all about their financial independence.

Sister of actress Ingrid Guimarães, investor and wealth manager Sigrid Guimarães says that many women prefer to let the family’s money be managed by men because they find the subject boring.

“And it’s really boring. But women have to be interested in participating in what’s happening with their money. There are many who say: ‘I don’t like the subject’. Patience! We don’t like a lot of things, but you need to know your financial life”, he says.

Sigrid advises that families hire a professional, such as a financial planner, to help invest the money, but she still says that all parties need to seek to understand asset management at a minimum, such as how much they have, whether they can save or not, what their monthly expenses, where your assets are invested and even knowing whether any investment recommendation by a consultant seems reasonable.

She says that the financial planner’s role is to be clear about their clients’ financial investments, and to resolve any doubts that may exist. And in the case of families who are unable to hire a consultant, Guimarães advises adopting a very simple method: paper and pen.

“In the case of a couple, one of the two can take on the role of gathering all the expenses and income coming in so that money can be managed more consciously. But even if it is the man who takes on this task, the A woman needs to find out about what she has, find out about what she spends on living, find out about the financial decisions that are being made, participate in these decisions and participate in meetings about financial discussions”, she states.

Control of money is used to keep women in relationships, says investor

Guimarães talks about the importance of female financial independence to free them from relationships that often imprison women, be it marriage or a work relationship. She remembers that property violence is often used as a tool when the man no longer knows where to target the woman.

Although it is not covered by law, property violence exists in various ways, from the most veiled to the most explicit, and affects women on a daily basis. Lawyers who deal with cases of this type need to use various legal devices to get around the situation.

“This happens every day here. It’s very difficult for a recently separated woman to come and be aware of her husband’s assets,” says lawyer Priscila da Fonseca, who has an office specializing in Family Law in the city of São Paulo.

“Property violence is more common than one might think. There are still many women with Cinderella dreams, unfortunately, who think that their marriage will never end and become totally dependent on their husband”, reports Fonseca.

She receives several cases in her office from women who do not have a checking account or any assets in their name, and need to ask friends for money to be able to take legal action. Several of them give up their careers to be able to accompany their businessman husband on successive country moves and, when they separate, they find themselves with nothing. Some depend on their husbands to such an extent that, upon separation, they cannot even write a check.

“I always advise that the woman works and has her money, to be independent. But in these extreme cases, the technical advice I give is for the person to make a prenuptial agreement, if she opts for the total separation of assets regime, to have right to compensation”, says the lawyer.

Despite dealing with cases of families with large accumulated assets, property violence affects women from all social classes. Fin4She’s financial planner and commercial manager, Aline Santos, gives her own life story as an example.

Daughter of a doorman, who works in a building in the south of Rio de Janeiro, Aline says that she started dating very early, at 15 years old, and before she even thought about entering higher education, she became pregnant. Always encouraged by her father to study, when her son was still young, she decided to enter business administration college, but faced resistance from her boyfriend.

“Every time I wanted to study, take a course or want to be different from what I was, he said: ‘You’re going to abandon me, you’re going to leave me because you’re going to be a better person than me'”, Santos recalls.

She says that starting college was a hassle because of her relationship. “He stayed behind the pillars of the university watching me. He criticized me when I talked about course work with guys in my class. He had the passwords to all my social networks, so he saw everything I wrote, who I talked to . And I was trapped in that relationship, thinking that if I separated I would take away my son’s family”, she says.

When she finally had the strength to leave the house where the two lived, Aline says she didn’t have the courage to go back to school for a while, because the shadow of her ex-boyfriend always haunted her. “I heard him saying: if you go back to college, you’ll be abandoning our son.”

After a lot of therapy and support from family and friends, Aline Santos managed to graduate as a business administration technician and obtain certification from Anbima (Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities). She says that she discovered financial planning through a friend.

“That’s when I came to understand the importance of having my own money, of saving that money, of becoming an investor and of reorganizing my financial situation”, he recalls.

Today, in addition to Santos controlling her own assets, she also helps her parents manage and invest their money. “My father was always an organized person, but he didn’t invest. Then he opened an account with a brokerage and his main goal was to pay off the apartment. So, about two, three years ago he started investing, and this year he managed to pay off the apartment. And now he plans to buy a second property as a form of investment.”

Carolina Cavenaghi, CEO of Fin4She, highlights the importance of women’s participation in managing family wealth, not only so that they have financial independence, but also because the expert sees an interesting complementarity of personalities that tends to enhance the family’s earnings.

An X-ray of the investment profile by gender carried out by Anbima is very representative in this sense. Both men and women have the same two main investment objectives: the dream of owning their own home (28% for women, compared to 30% for men), and accumulating an emergency fund (20% in both cases).

But some priorities change in other comparisons, according to Anbima. For women, traveling the world (9%) and providing education for themselves and their children and grandchildren (8%) are above, for example, the need to invest in their own business (7%) or in retirement (6%). In the case of men, planning for old age and starting a business (both at 9%) are the third most cited reasons for investing, ahead of travel and studies.

“This mix, when you look at a couple, is much more intelligent for the future than when just one person takes care of the assets. The minds are sometimes very different, and this complements each other”, says Cavenaghi.