Families in Transition
When your spouse passes away, or is about to, there’s a lot to process emotionally. Sorting through urgent financial matters can make an already difficult time even harder. However, planning ahead as a couple or individually after the passing can help you create a clear financial plan that can make the road ahead feel less uncertain.
Fero Financial offers tailored guidance through our Financial Planning for Surviving Spouse service to help individuals and families prepare for the unexpected or figure out their finances as they navigate new financial responsibilities.
How To Prepare Financially for the Death of a Spouse
Preparing for the possible death of a spouse can make it easier for the family when it eventually comes to it. This may include organizing financial documents, sharing household responsibilities, understanding the family's financial position, planning for estate needs, and generally knowing what the situation might look like when a spouse departs.
Fero Financial’s Financial Planning for Surviving Spouses guides couples through practical preparation by taking them through an estate planning exercise for married couples. Ours is a guided checklist for the surviving spouse to organize household finances.
This preparation is especially important where one spouse has traditionally handled most financial decisions and must now financially prepare their spouse for their likely death. Fero Financial guides you on what to do to feel more confident about the changes ahead.
How To Manage Finances After the Loss of a Spouse
Losing the person you shared your life with changes so much, but Fero Financial can help make this life transition much easier. While our intervention cannot take away the pain, it can make the practical side of moving forward a little less stressful.
Through our Financial Planning For Surviving Spouse service, we start by helping you understand your immediate needs and existing financial position. Instead of making big financial decisions right away, we help you identify what needs attention first, and then gradually move on to planning for future needs and financial goals.
For women navigating life after losing a spouse, our For Widows resources provide guidance and support as you plan your next steps. If other significant changes like retirement, divorce, family responsibilities, relocation, and health changes are affecting your financial life, Life Transition Planning can help you address their financial implications.
Fero Financial’s Checklist for Surviving Spouses
Whether you’re facing the imminent demise of your spouse or they’ve already passed on, our checklist can help ensure financial security for a surviving spouse. It includes the following:
- Organize financial records, including account statements, tax returns, estate documents, insurance policies, and debt information. Keep them in a secure, accessible location.
- Clarify household responsibilities by making sure both partners know how bills are paid, how to manage everyday tasks, have account access, and know who to call for assistance.
- Review insurance and survivor benefits to see what life insurance coverage is available and which survivor benefits apply. Confirm who is listed as the beneficiary on these accounts.
- Keep your estate plans up to date. Also, review legal documents periodically to ensure they still reflect your wishes.
- Identify trusted professionals like your financial planner, tax adviser, and estate-planning attorney, and keep their contact information somewhere both you and your spouse can easily find.
Taking the time to plan together can help couples feel more prepared for life’s uncertainty and give the surviving spouse a clear sense of direction during a difficult time.
Call Fero Financial Today
You don’t have to navigate these financial decisions alone. Our Financial Planning For Surviving Spouse service can help you find clarity, explore your options, and feel more confident about the road ahead. Our approach is shaped around your circumstances, whether you’re planning together as a couple or finding your footing financially after a spouse’s death.
Contact our team to discuss your circumstances, and we’ll take it from there. Start here.
FAQs
It could affect the money coming into your household through Social Security payments, pension payments, retirement benefits, and other financial resources. Reviewing these potential changes with a financial planner can help you determine whether your current plan can fully support you.
Take time to review your finances together so both partners understand household income, how bills are handled, and how to track investments. Also discuss retirement plans, insurance coverage, debt, and the financial goals you’re working toward together. Make sure your spouse knows who to contact to handle finances, taxes, and legal matters.
Documents like tax returns, retirement account details, mortgage and loan records, wills, trusts, powers of attorney, insurance policies, and bank and investment statements. Review them periodically to ensure the information therein is current.
PLEASE NOTE: Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
