Dr. Sherry Cooper

Former Chief Economist, BMO Financial Group

Bestselling Author

Dr. Sherry Cooper is the Chief Economist of Dominion Lending Centres. This is Canada’s leading mortgage and leasing company with more than 2,600 members offering free expert advice across Canada. In this role, Sherry helps Canadians understand the issues surrounding their most important financial decision – buying a home.

An award-winning authority on finance and economics, Sherry is also TMX Industry Professor at DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University.

Named “the megawatt celebrity economist” by Canada’s national newspaper –and repeatedly cited as one of the most influential women in Canada, Sherry served as Chief Economist and Executive Vice-President of BMO Financial Group where she was responsible for global economic and financial forecasting as well as country-risk and industry-risk analysis. She joined BMO Financial Group in 1994 when it acquired Burns Fry, where she had been Chief Economist, Co-Head of Fixed Income and the first female director of a Bay Street investment firm.

Well-known as a media commentator, Sherry’s third book – “The New Retirement: How It Will Change Our Future” – was a blockbuster best-seller.

Dr. Cooper has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh. She began her career at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. where she worked very closely with then-Chairman, Paul Volcker and subsequently joined the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) as Director of Financial Economics.

The New Retirement

Global economic strategist Sherry Cooper explains that the boomer generation will be reaching traditional retirement age very soon and that an enormous wave of boomer retirees will crest in 2025. This phenomenon will profoundly affect the labour markets, the economy, and financial markets for decades. But will boomers retire the way their parents did? Or will they work longer and transition gradually into semi-retirement?

Cooper tells us that boomers will redefine retirement with great energy and creativity, working well beyond age 65 and mostly by choice. With the dramatic rise in their longevity, healthy goal-driven boomers will seek purposeful leisure—focusing on regeneration, rejuvenation, and low-stress contributions to society and their own personal wealth.

Follow Cooper through her own journey to discover the route to financial security. Learn how the new retirement is about living well while achieving both monetary security and your personal goals.