Reviewer's report
Title:The business of death: a qualitative study of financial concerns of widowed
older women
Version:2Date:23 December 2014
Reviewer: Sonia Salari
Reviewer's report:
Review of “The Business of Death” MS BMC Women’s Health
I think the manuscript has promise, but I would say it needs to have essential
revisions and given more depth. These are good points about the need for
attention to financial administration burden after widowhood, but it is in need of
some more specifics about gender roles, attending to these tasks after a death,
the importance of financial privacy and sensitivity, the problem as it relates to
cohort flow, and the specific policies that would be suggested.
1) The findings of this study are the most interesting part of the paper. The
authors would do well to set it up earlier so that the reader is able to follow along
a guide and be knowledgeable about the context of the study by the time they get
to the results. So, for example it was late in the paper before the location of the
study (Australia) was disclosed. I was less familiar with terms such as
“superannuation.” In addition, the talk of “administration” was used several times
before it was explained a little better on pg 9. So this suggests it wasn’t really
developed up front.
2) Early on the issue of cohort placement and gender role differences seemed a
bit absent in the set up for this paper. If you have women whose husbands die
and they don’t understand how their breadwinner conducted the household
financials, it indicates a possible cohort socialization effect. A paper of mine
discussed differences in predictors of wellbeing according to cohorts and it might
be of use here. The oldest generation was socialized to value different
accomplishments. Men value assets/wealth while women value family
interactions. Meantime, young cohorts in my article have women who are
interested in assets and wealth and men who are interested in family interaction.
The citation is
Sonia Salari & Wei Zhang (2006) “Kin keepers and good providers: Gender
socialization effects on well-being among birth cohorts” Aging and Mental Health
Vol. 10 (5) 485-496.
Last paragraph of page two and down to bottom of page 3 could have a
discussion of how the current cohort has the breadwinner/homemaker
socialization, but cohorts born afterward (baby boomers and gen X—) would
have women who were socialized to earn money and pay bills. Another
discussion of cohorts is the following citation
Peter Uhlenberg and Sonia Miner (1996). A Cohort Life Course Perspective on
Aging. Chapter in the Handbook of Aging and Social Sciences Robert Binstock
and Linda George (Eds.) Fourth Edition. San Diego, CA. Academic Press, Inc.
So, this administrative burden may be particularly salient for this cohort of elderly
women, but then future cohorts as they age may experience a whole new set of
issues. Today’s elderly may have their home fully paid off, whereas the younger
cohorts may be more comfortable with larger amounts of debt. Family structure
may also be different. For example, there will be more non-marital cohabitation,
divorce, women working in the labor force, etc. which may mix up the findings for
future generations. Also, because of divorce you may have adult children who
are left with the administrative burdens of their parents. I’ve known people who in
early 20s had to provide care to dying parent, and settle their estate at a young
age.
3) The suggestion this process could be streamlined is a good idea. However,
there may be particular reasons why it is not. For example, the task of
transporting the death certificate to various entities is perhaps to prevent fraud or
elder exploitation. In the U.S. there are a few unfortunate souls who are
erroneously recorded as “dead” at the Social Security Administration every year.
This may sound funny, but I assure you it is a very big problem for those people
to prove they are not dead. The problem of elder financial abuse is a big one in
the U.S. There is also the issue we call HIPAA, which represents the sensitivity
and privacy of medical records, with controversies surrounding the newer
electronic format. The U.S. Census was conducted in paper format in 2010 and
surveys were sent through the U.S. mail. Part of the reason it wasn’t
computerized is because of the sensitivity of documents and the concern that
electronic records might be hacked or suspected of a hack by those who should
trust this system (and send in their census form).
4) The problem with financial tasks is that you can’t have just anyone help you
out. There is enough elder exploitation that you would need to fully trust the
helper and even adult children who have the best intentions may become
untrustworthy.
5) The housing and financial disruptions of these women are heartbreaking. How
frequent were these situations? In addition, what were the nature and duration of
the deaths? I would imagine a sudden death would be more vulnerable to these
sorts of financial surprises for the homemakers. If your spouse had a slow
moving, chronic illness there would be enough advanced warning to get affairs in
order.
6) I agree there should be some sort of financial literacy education for the older
women of today’s elderly cohort. I’m not sure the policy suggestions were robust
enough, so they would need a lot more attention.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare I have no competing interests.