Atlantic Trust said it recently rolled out a new program that informs and empowers women about critical wealth management topics.

Atlantic Trust, the US private wealth management division of CIBC, has created CIRCLE (Centered on Investments, Relationships, Community, Legacy and Enterprise) - a financial literacy program for women.

“Women are a key component of any client-family relationship, and we want to be sure that we are speaking to them directly,” said Linda Beerman, chief fiduciary officer and head of the wealth strategies group at Atlantic Trust.

“Our Women's CIRCLE focuses on the ways that women perceive, understand and relate to investments and wealth. We know, for example, that women often feel very comfortable in a multi-generation 'sharing' setting, in which daughters and mothers can not only learn together, but also learn from each other, especially about how wealth informs the family's legacy planning.”

Beerman noted that even women who already have good familiarity with investing, wealth management, risk and the markets, can make sure they are modeling good behavior for their family by ensuring that they're exposed to the financial knowledge they need.

Atlantic Trust points to research showing that discussions around wealth and family legacy are “more important to women than ever.”

The American College of Financial Services, for example, found that approximately 45 per cent of American millionaires are women, and around $25 trillion will pass to women through inheritance and from spouses by 2030.

Key topics of discussion through CIRCLE will include investing, risk, legacy planning and philanthropy—subjects chosen specifically because of their interest to women, their relevance to wealth management and their ability to provide a context for financial learning, the firm said.

Events have already been held in Chicago, Boston, New York and Atlanta, with more being scheduled through the rest of 2015 and beyond.