There are only two inevitable things in life, death and taxes. We’ve covered taxes quite a bit during our workshops, but what happens when your spouse passes? It can be a difficult topic to talk about when death is the subject. It is an inevitable reality but it\’s certainly something that should be dealt with because it\’s going to happen. We simply don\’t know when. Planning for death and what comes after for the remaining spouse is a lot of preparation up and no one likes planning for that. The Thrive team touches on eleven bullet points for what it looks like when the first one of us passes away. They’ve put together a concise but thorough list of information for you to go through and be prepared of in the event that something unfortunate happens.

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What Happens When Your Spouse Passes

This podcast originated from the feedback from some of our earlier shows where we have touched on a topic of conversation and a request for us to dig a bit deeper. Karen Bezar in the lead chair, along with Bret Elam joining me. David will not be with us. Hi, Karen.

I’m great.

Bret, how are you?

I’m doing fantastic. I’m looking forward to this episode’s feedback when David, Karen and I were sitting down with prospects going through the Thrive Retirement Roadmap Review. One of the things that we emphasize is what does life look like when the first one of us passes away. We talk about it a lot during our taxes and retirement workshop. There are only two inevitableness in life, death and taxes. We definitely covered taxes quite a bit during our workshops, but in this show we want to concentrate on what happens when the first one of us passes away. We’ve got an eleven-bullet point of topics to go through, a checklist where Karen and I thought that we’d dedicate a significant part of this show towards that specific topic.

You can go to ThriveFinancialServices.com to find out more information and our upcoming workshops. It can be a difficult topic to talk about when death is in the subject line. It is an inevitable reality and it\’s certainly one that we’ve talked about. Karen, we talked about it on your women\’s special, so I\’ll give an opportunity to begin and set the table for us.

Near and dear to my heart are women in retirement. Among Americans 65 and older, almost twice as many women as men are living with financial hardship, 68% of all the elderly poor are women. Women do tend to outlive men. That\’s a scary number. They\’re not poor prior to the death of their spouse.

The expected longevity or the expected amount of time that you\’re going to live is going much longer on the timeline than perhaps it did 25 years ago or twenty years ago. That\’s a variable as well.

You see this actuarial tables that come out. We\’ve seen upon the passing of a husband or a wife while a husband lives on average by six years and then you combine that with the statistic that for 65-year-old couple, there\’s a 50% chance that at least one of you will make it to the age of 95. Those are big numbers. Whether we want to talk about our assets, which we\’re not going to spend any time talking about too much in detail, but we\’re talking about what does life look like when the first one of us passes away.

It\’s a good thing with eleven-bullet points to touch on. Let\’s try and get through the bullet points in segments of our show. In this way, you can have the conversation around the bullet points and put as much or as little as you think. 

It\’s hit home. My mother-in-law passed away at the age of 72. My parents have been doing well but my mother was diagnosed with cancer and she got out of the hospital battling a blood infection. Life\’s precious when you\’re talking about a 70-year-old. When David, Karen and I have the ability to sit down with people and say, \”If you have the ability to retire a little bit early, is that something you\’re interested in?\” People have in their mind that, “I\’m going to live out into my 80\’s and 90\’s.”

[bctt tweet=\”You want an adviser that you can trust and you have to have somebody who is looking out for you.\” username=\”\”]

Here are some of the quotes that we hear from people. \”The unthinkable has happened. Why him? What now? I always felt bad for others who lost their spouse. I don\’t know what to do or how I feel. It wasn\’t supposed to happen. We thought it would last forever and it hasn\’t sunk in that my spouse is gone.\” Letting that sink in the emotional side of it. It\’s going to happen. We don\’t know when. Life is precious and it\’s like, \”I\’m going to go work until I\’m 70 and I\’m going to live for the next 25 years.\” What if life happens? We don\’t plan for that. My mother-in-law passed away all of a sudden from a blood clot in the heart. My mother was diagnosed with cancer.

They didn\’t plan on that. They had everything earmarked. David, Karen and I, were in Ireland. My mother was with us trucking along, going off on her own thing and we fast forward to one year later, \”What happened?\” She turned 70. One, we\’re going to talk about funeral and memorial arrangements. That\’s always a big one that\’s happening right away. Two, is organize your information. We say that all the time with clients coming into us not having to prepare. Three, contacting your network of advisers, we talk about attorneys, your accountants, insurance agents, financial advisers.

Fourth, consider that new cash flow. People underestimate what they think they\’re going to need on a monthly basis, but again it\’s being true to yourself of understanding what that budget number is. Fifth, we have to consult with health care and insurance professionals. We\’ll touch base, sometimes that comes into play for a little bit younger. Remember baby boomers and that doesn\’t mean they\’re all in their 60s. We got a bunch of baby boomers that are in their 50s as well. Number six, collect benefits. I\’m going to touch base on Social Security, pensions, etc.

 

On those first six, keep the second six to the left side of the page. On those first six that were referenced. We\’ve had many conversations on the show because I have my mother-in-law who moved in with us when her husband passed away. Those first six are important need to occur quickly and can be so overwhelming.

When we talk with couples, two things that stand out to me when a couple comes in and the gentlemen will say, \”I handle the money.\” He\’s doing his own investments. He\’s self-directed as we say and then I say, \”That\’s great.\” Then, I turned to the wife and say, \”How do you feel about that? Are you comfortable with that? Are you able to self-direct your money? What if your husband passes away first?\” I always add in there statistically it does happen. Understand that David and I are married, Bret\’s married to Heather. We can also empathize. We\’re not cold when we talk about these things because we\’re emotionally tied to our spouses. We\’ve gone through it with parents and we can also put ourselves in their place. We understand it\’s a tough subject to talk about but it needs to be dealt with.

Bret, number one on the list happens within twelve hours, fourteen hours or maybe 24 at the most but that call or that conversation is right away.

You think about it and people are like, \”I\’ll deal with it when we get there.\” My father-in-law had passed and when my mother-in-law passed away, it was my sister-in-law and my wife who were at the house. They started to put all those arrangements together. You\’re not thinking straight. It\’s like, \”Are we going to have a funeral with a casket or are we going to have cremation? Do we donate their body to science?\” It\’s a lot of that preparation up and no one likes planning for that. It\’s like putting a budget together. I want to go spend time planning that two-week vacation not thinking about death and whatever, but it\’s going to happen. It\’s better to be prepared than being unprepared because of the inevitable.

Out of that six, pick one of them and Karen will comment on it.

I’m also going to start with number one, it can lead into number two. We have a retirement planning analysis that people who\’ve never met with us have to fill out prior to coming in. We\’ll work with you while you come in. We ask, \”Do you have any wills? Do you have any trust? Do you have anything set up?\” I met somebody, she said, \”I understood in the state of Pennsylvania that you don\’t need to have a will.\” That might be true, but do you want them deciding?\” If you have more than one child, \”Do you want them to get along after you pass away?\” There are a lot of moving parts to funerals and to what\’s left over.

The moving parts will continue to surface. A year from now, two years from now, three years out those things continue to surface. We had a situation come up. My wife needed to secure a copy of the death certificate. Two years later, she needed it for an account. 

We went through the first six items. Let’s put the other five that are out there. We can go back to talk through some of them, some of the stories that David, Karen and I see on a daily basis. Seven, review your assets and liabilities. Always determine our quality of life and what we can and can\’t do moving forward. Eight, is about the estate settlement. It’s about bank accounts, switching bank accounts right away or remove somebody\’s name. Nine, is the important one, don\’t get run down, meaning we feel the stress when someone passes away.

[bctt tweet=\”When we are in the right frame of mind, we can start making the right decisions.\” username=\”\”]

Ten is a big one, postpone major decisions. You get a lot of people out there that are prying on people when they\’re emotionally weak and trying to get them to make major decisions. The last one is focus on new goals. It\’s hard to deal when we\’ve been married to somebody for twenty, 30, 40, 50 years and all of a sudden, it\’s changing. Those are the eleven topics we\’re going to try and touch base. We don\’t know when life\’s going to happen twenty, 30, 40 years from now, starting to think about things that we don\’t want to think about and preparing for them.

The benefit of this program and what Thrive Financial Services has tried to do all from the very beginning is educate the audience. Educate those who come out to the workshop, those who come to the office for a complimentary sit down, do an evaluation, and a conversation. Karen, when you get to this point, are you ever going to be 100% prepared? Perhaps not emotionally. At least if you\’re in a position to see the end, you\’re in a better space. 

Number two is organize your information. I\’m going to go back to our retirement planning analysis. When we meet with people for the first time, it\’s a very simple worksheet. Nothing that takes a lot of brain cells. After people sit down with those the first time, we make them organize things in a manner that if God forbid something were to happen, then things are there, and you know what to do. Even if they don\’t become our clients, they say, \”Thank you so much for making us sit down and do this,\” because it made them pull statements. I had a couple come in. He found out that he has a pension from an old job and he was like, \”$350 a month.\” That\’s your whatever going out for fun. He\’s like, \”I did not even know I had that.\” I said, \”Do you know your survivor benefit on that?\” He\’s like, \”I don\’t think I was married on that one. I don\’t know that is.\” It\’s a great exercise.

The point of that is the reality that you don\’t know, you forgot, you took it for granted or you don\’t know where your life insurance policy is. All of that is all of a sudden forced to the top of the table.

Going back to topic number one, the plain and simple happens right away as funeral, memorial arrangements. Something that we faced when my mother-in-law passed away. She had a final expense policy. It was $10,000. It was in the pile of stuff that we went through. We figured out that had lapsed, meaning it was no longer enforced and what she had done was purchase a $3,000-policy to help pay for those costs. She changed that about eight to nine years ago which is the best guess that we could put our finger on. Here\’s the problem, she got cremated so there was no casket. Nothing happened at the funeral home other than they came and got the body. They brought the ashes with an urn at the end of the day.

The services were at the church where we didn’t have to pay anything and the meal was done at the church. There are a lot of people. You put a lot of additions onto that. You\’re going to take everyone out for a meal. You\’re going to have the funeral home. What\’s the cost of the casket? That bill was a little over $5,000. All of a sudden, we have that preparation that\’s out there where, somebody feels like they\’re doing the appropriate thing by having some insurance and something\’s better than nothing, but she had $3,000 of coverage. Where In your mind you\’re like, \”That\’s not going to be that much because no one needs to go out on a meal. I don\’t need to have a casket.\”

There\’s inflation. It\’s amazing what something costs five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago and where things are at now, it\’s real. It\’s having readily available cash to be able to pay for those things as well. That funeral director is ready to be paid and you want your death certificates. Life insurance will send you those proceeds. We\’re six to eight weeks and all of a sudden, my wife got something in the mail. It was the same paperwork we filled out five weeks ago and I was like, \”Here we go. Bang our head against a wall dealing with the insurance company.\” Just trying to get all those pieces together. It\’s a little thing that we think about.

 

The funeral director needs to be paid in full when you sign the agreement.

Where we were at it was a discount if you paid within 60 days or something like that, but they\’re all different. It\’s why so many times you see at these funerals, the hat being passed around the block trying to come up with that money. That’s why you also see these GoFundMes that are out there on Facebook because people aren\’t necessarily going through the proper planning when life happens.

The death of a spouse is a very important subject. It can be challenging to talk about. It\’s the reality of life and it\’s necessary when you sit down with them.

It\’s not always comfortable, but most people that come sit down with us, they know the inevitable is going to happen. They\’re open to listening. I\’ve never had anybody say, \”I don\’t want to hear anything that you have to say.\” I remember his mother-in-law\’s funeral and I remember the caterer coming over and asking to settle the bill. I was like, \”These poor people are dealing with this.\” It\’s horrible, it\’s a sad time but you\’d at least can help by being prepared. In organizing information an important thing is to get all your beneficiaries lined up. Make sure you have everybody correctly situated in that fact, especially even for life insurance.

It rolls into considering your cashflow and immediate need for cash, which is at a budget. I got a lot of people think, \”First one of us passes away. My expenses are going to get cut in half.” The joke we always make during our workshops is when was the last time your property tax got cut in half when somebody passed away. You\’re not going to eat twice as much food. You\’re typically not going to pay twice as much for health insurance, but be organized, be prepared. There\’s nothing like making emotional decisions when it comes to finances.

When people come in for that Thrive Retirement Roadmap Review, you can tell who\’s prepared and who\’s prepped where they have these spreadsheets and you\’re like, \”We know we\’re not going to be guessing at anything. They know their number to the tee.” The other people that are thinking, \”I haven\’t done this in twenty years,” or “I haven\’t updated my will since my kids were three years old.\” It\’s understanding those budgets. It\’s organizing that information which is so critical.

If you fall into the category of you don\’t have everything collectively together and organized, that\’s okay. The Roadmap, the sit down, the forms that forced people to bring the information forward will all of a sudden help them get things together.

Let’s go back to number three, which is contact your network of advisers. When we talk about advisers, we meant attorneys, tax professionals, insurance agents, and financial advisers. Karen touched on this when we first started talking about wills, estates and trusts. making sure that\’s covered. My wife and I are 41 and 40 and we found a will that was about thirteen years old. I don\’t think we\’ve spoken to the people and about eight years of who our kids are going to go to.

[bctt tweet=\”We want to have clarity in our mind to make rational decisions.\” username=\”\”]

I have a thirteen and eleven, and a seven-year-old. We looked at each other, \”I do this every single day.\” You know what the thought is? I\’m not going anywhere in the next twenty, 30 years who cares? I don\’t know what life\’s happening tomorrow. That\’s always an important one, making sure that those are updated, contact your attorney as soon as possible. A lot of times there are some discounts when you get an estate settled earlier. If there\’s any kind of inheritance tax, not necessarily going to pertain when it\’s a spouse. Another big one\’s taxes, your tax attorney or accountant. We talk about this during the workshop and upon the passing of the first spouse, it\’s going to be the last year that you\’re going to file a joint tax return.

Depending upon pensions and social security decisions that we made, sometimes it\’s sticker shock and we go through a great example during the workshop of when the first person passes away the difference in these tax brackets from a single individual, from a joint, a lot of times you\’re having to withhold an extra 5%, 10% of your overall income. Not only am I always losing the social security benefit, the lower of the two benefits. In addition to that depending upon our pension decisions, we\’re typically seeing loss of income coming from taxes as well.

The year that the spouse passes becomes the last year that you file your taxes jointly.

As crazy as it sounds, sometimes we\’re doing preparations to pull money out of IRAs or taking some long-term capital gains because we know the next year what taxes are going to look like. I can go through a couple of clients who had lost her spouse and it\’s like, \”I know this is hard. I don\’t want you making any decisions. I want to explain to you we\’re not going to buy anything, sell anything, anything new. Just go from A to B to realize these taxable situations because I don\’t want it to be sticker shock next year.” She\’s like, \”No, I appreciate that.\”

You want an adviser that you can trust, and you have to have somebody who is looking out for you. That\’s where a fiduciary comes in to play, which is very important for us.

At that moment in time, Karen, that statement is done. Never rings more true than it then at that moment for sure.

You don\’t want to make any life altering decisions at that time. It not the best time to do that.

Five is consulting with healthcare and other insurance professionals. Your husband or your wife has passed, you need to secure important documents. You need to have birth certificate, marriage license, social security changes. You have to understand how to do all that. There\’s going to be a change in your social security income, if you\’re a couple. You\’re going to most likely you\’re going to get the higher of the two social security incomes, which some people do understand, some people don\’t understand.

 

Do they understand how to do it or how to get it? I guess not.

That\’s a lot of the education sometimes and unfortunately, it\’s who do I get in front of when I\’m on the telephone with social security or where I\’m at. It\’s getting out appropriate guidance of knowing that, \”My spouse passed away and almost all circumstances to surviving spouse is always going to get the greater of the two benefits.\” Another big one too is when you talk about life insurance.

Life insurance companies, I see it all the time when we have clients who has a spouse passes away. They\’re trying to get them to settle into something where we see a lot of times you get life insurance proceeds to say, \”I appreciate everything that you\’re trying to help me with. Can you do me a favor and send me a check? Put it in my account and wait to make a decision.\” You see people that are trying to put them in vehicles that aren\’t necessarily appropriate, lock their money up. Realize insurance companies are out there to make money at the same time.

There\’s nothing wrong with cash. You can always do whatever you want to do with it. It\’s not going to go out. It\’s not going to go down. When we were in the right frame of mind, we can start making those right decisions that are out there. Health insurance, that\’s a big deal, especially when we have people that are passing away before the age of 65. Medicare at 65, not a big deal, but we meet a lot of people, especially women during our workshops whose husbands have passed away five, ten, fifteen years ago. It\’s understanding when the first one of us passes away and we\’re still at work. Maybe we\’re not at Medicare age. \”Can I stay on the company\’s plan benefits that my spouse passed away with? Can my kid stay on there? Should I be looking at the exchange? What are all my different options that are out there?\”

Having a plan and knowing that when something does happen or where can I go and what can I do? That\’s a big one right there. Especially if you\’ve ever taken a pension. Let us say my spouse is working for Verizon or Exelon or the Union. There\’s a pension benefit and they pass away. They\’ve never taken a claim from that. That spouse is still getting that money. We need to know that information. You\’re going to want to know that information, when it does happen again, it\’s little by little.

[bctt tweet=\”It\’s good to have a plan, but postpone the major decisions.\” username=\”\”]

It\’s having this checklist, these eleven items, starting to think that some of them are emotional moment. Some of them are more tangible. Being prepared and those are things when people do come in and sit with us during that Thrive Retirement Roadmap Review, we\’re making them conscious of it. Sometimes we\’re seeing people after that first spouse passed away. That\’s what we\’re hoping is bringing a little bit of value to the listening audience.

A couple comes in for the review, and at the end of that review, how much have they learned or discovered that they didn\’t know? My bet is it\’s a lot. Yes?

I would say the good thing about our process is, it\’s a two-step process. You come in first time and spend about an hour with us. We ask you some questions. We will say, \”Do you know your survivor benefit on your pension?\” It\’s surprising to us, but this is what we do for a living and they may or may not. Then they come back a second time and re-review the reports with them. We\’re not throwing so much information at them at the time.

I can’t encourage the audience enough, support enough the thought behind, setting up the complimentary sit-down in that conversation. You\’re never going to be the smartest person in the room if you are, you\’re in the wrong room.

We pride ourselves on education advocacy. Realizing that when people come in for this complimentary review, everyone doesn\’t necessarily become a client of Thrive Financial, but the biggest thing that allows us to sleep well at night is people talking about the value. It was completely worth their time coming in because they learned something they didn\’t have before. That\’s what we pride ourselves on is helping people put those puzzle pieces together with income distribution and retirement. Whether it\’s taxes, social security planning, getting that second opinion on investments or blessing things that when the first one of us passes away, that the quality of life that we hope that our spouse is going to be able to continue with is actually going to happen.

That\’s one of the things we always cover as a death of a spouse. There is not a 50% cut in your expenses, that\’s a big one. We allow for that and we explained that and that\’s important. People might think, \”I spent 50%.” You don\’t.

I hope the audience caught it. It\’s why I sit in this chair. It\’s okay if you don\’t become a client, at Thrive Financial Services, we want to help you anyway. We want to help you to provide that foundational education for you that\’s going to help you, that\’s going to perhaps change your life with one simple decision.

It\’s why our tribe is growing. It\’s building community. Empowering people that there\’s so many things that you read online, you hear on the radio, you see on TV and it\’s like, \”We\’re local.\” It\’s the satisfaction that we get by sitting down with people and giving them direction whether they ever utilize us to take advantage of it, that\’s okay. Do it somewhere and be prepared.

We\’re independent so we always do what\’s right for our clients. We do take a holistic approach. If somebody comes in here, maybe they don\’t have a will. Maybe they have an accountant, but they\’re not thrilled with him. We have partners that we work with that if you become our client, you will have your adviser in-house. You will have, if you choose a CPA in-house. We have attorneys that we work with. If we all work together, we all know what the right hand sewing and the left hand is doing. We all know how to work together. Even though there\’s always going to be a death of a spouse. Somebody had gotten a very horrible motorcycle accident. What happens if that person\’s unconscious? Bret said, \”Do you know the passwords to everything? Do you know where everything is located?\” That\’s all very important.

She didn\’t? That was a scary thing. He was the CFO of the household no ifs or buts. He passed away and she goes, \”I don\’t know the password for anything.\” He was an IT guy, and everything was like triple secret coded. She\’s like, \”I did the best I could. They wouldn\’t want to give me any information. Don\’t expect to receive any kind of payment because I have no idea what to give you.\” Luckily, he survived, and everything turned out all right. Those things that we don\’t think about that we’ve got to prepare for.

Number seven is reviewing your assets and liabilities. This analysis can allow you to realize and understand what you can and can\’t do from a financial standpoint. When we talk about assets, think about retirement assets, these are 401(k)s, IRAs, annuities, pensions. We talk about personal assets might be your real estate furnishings, art, jewelry. Maybe a recreational vehicle or a boat. They’re also regular stocks, bonds, mutual funds, maybe some other real estate properties we may have. We\’ve got to think about what liabilities we have out there. Their credit card debt, that\’s a big one. If you have a credit card debt that\’s only in one spouse\’s name, understand that doesn\’t always have to be paid off. As crazy as that sounds, you\’re not liable for it.

 

Talk with somebody about that. When that happens because you can call the credit card company said, \”Go ahead and you can screw up their credit.\” What\’s going to happen at the end of the day? They\’re dead at the end of the day. We always tell that we teach that to a lot of people as well. Understand that because that\’ll help set the stage. Talking about the new normal, what\’s that budget. What can I do? Life could happen in the 50\’s 60\’s, 70\’s, 80\’s. We sit down with people and all sorts of different ages who may be a widow, widower, putting those pieces together.

Retirement assets Bret, you can speak to this is if your spouse has an IRA, how is that treated? How do you collect that money?

It\’s the one instance that their IRA becomes your IRA. If anyone else inherits that IRA it becomes a beneficiary IRA. The roles are a bit different. Those are things that we touch on when we sit with people is understanding that domino effect and the first one of us who passes away.

If both passed away or if you were the only parent living and then your children get the IRA, people have come in and ask, \”How does that transfer to my children?\”

That moves us right along. When you talk about a state settlement because it\’s talking about that. How does that move to my spouse? I see my wife dealing with it right now, who’s was joined on the bank account with my mother-in-law is, don\’t be so quick to remove someone\’s name off of a bank account. There are always these little lingering checks that are out there. Then all of a sudden, their name is nowhere to be seen. The hassle that it takes to go get things re-issued and rewound and all that. Take your time with that in terms of immediately closing, switching banks and all that good stuff because we don\’t know what\’s going to happen. Wait a little bit, take your time.

The example of the reference that I made to my wife needing to secure a copy of the death certificate was exactly for that two years later for an account. It had something to do with a security deposit that a tenant paid on a rental property that was put into Escrow that my wife had to now reimburse that tenant. The web will always be there.

Savings bond or people who have bonds. I had a couple come in the other day, first time. Her husband said, \”I forgot to put on that list. I have a $60,000 in savings bonds,” and his wife looked at him. She\’s like, \”We do? Where are they? When did we buy these?\” He\’s like, \”I think back in 2000.\” She\’s like, \”Where are they at?\” He\’s like, \”Safe deposit box.\” She\’s like, \”Do I have a key to the safe deposit?\” He totally forgot about it. They were twenty-year bonds.

Nine, don\’t get rundown. We want to have clarity in our mind to make rational decisions. A lot of times we lose a spouse. You\’re not sleeping. We hear it all the time. You don\’t feel yourself and sometimes it becomes the present state. It\’s always making sure that we have that network of family and friends that are checking in and get the appropriate sleep. You\’re trying to make all these decisions, funeral arrangements and all these other things, the caterer coming in at the funeral and saying, \”Where\’s the money?\” It\’s good to have that network of people and don\’t let yourself get run down because it\’s a sad time when someone passes away, trying to keep that in your mind is rational as possible with all that.

I know we\’re talking about death of a spouse, but I had a woman come in who is divorced so she doesn\’t have a spouse, but her concern is, \”What happens to me when I pass away? How do my children know what to do?\” She didn\’t even start the process, meeting with us and becoming our client. We will reach out to the kids like they will know who we are, would they? You have contact with us. We have people and they have our cell phone numbers. They have our email addresses. We are on 24/7. Somebody will be here because it doesn\’t always happen Monday through Friday, nine to five.

Matter of fact, most of the time it happens outside of that.

[bctt tweet=\”Focus on new goals. Try to keep yourself out there.\” username=\”\”]

Every emergency always happens Friday nights depending on whether it\’s an illness or whether the hot water heater goes. It doesn\’t matter. It\’s always Friday night and weekends.

Never during the normalcy of the day.

Number ten, postpone major decisions. We pride ourselves on being fiduciaries, doing what\’s right by people. Not everyone out there unfortunately in our business is necessarily doing that where they\’re trying to have a workshop for widow widowers like right off the bat. There are people out there that are looking at widow and widowers as easy targets to take advantage of financially. If I\’m going to take the cash from the life insurance, let\’s sit on it for a little bit. Get some clarity in the mind. \”I got to go sell the house and go move.\” We hear that all the time. \”My spouse passes away and we\’re going to sell the house.\” Relax.

It\’s good to have a plan, but what happens the house or market\’s crazy? Postponing the major decisions is important to think about upon the passing of the first spouse. All things that we\’re highlighting. When people come in and talk with us through that complimentary Thrive Retirement Roadmap Review session, and we get passionate about it because it\’s real. It\’s going to happen. We don\’t know when we need to prepare for inevitably when it does happen.

We talked about the sale of a house with Diane Cardano. She said she meets with couples as we do years ahead of time. You need to prepare. She doesn\’t want the same thing happening is you don\’t want someone coming and saying, \”You should sell your house and you should sell it for this price.\” Taking a low price. Someone\’s taking advantage of people like that and we don\’t like to see that.

She was a good addition because her Thrive synergy was there in that as you stated, she meets with clients perhaps in advance in all part of organizing the plan. You’re never going to have the plans where you\’re covered for everything but certainly you have the ability to at least be prepared.

 

Krause, I want to thank you for keeping us on task. Focus on new goals. We\’ve been married twenty, 30, 40 years. It\’s hard to turn the page of what will my new life will look like without my spouse that I\’ve grown accustomed to, your partner and everything. A lot of it is we don\’t have to go out there and date right away, but again it\’s getting ourselves sometimes involved in more social networks. I\’m putting ourselves out there. A lot of people that we\’ve known forever. I want people to think of me as me. It\’s just me. They\’re reminiscent about all the stories over the past twenty and 30 years and it\’s hard to move on. It\’s good to have a network of people and a new network of people that can help with that. It\’s hard being lonely and to stay out of that depressing state. It\’s trying to keep ourselves out there.

We’ve covered eleven topics key topics in a conversation, the death of a spouse. I want to thank Bret, Karen for being a part of what I thought was a great hour of information. Thanks to our readers of the Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. I encourage readers to take you up on your offer. Call for a complimentary review, so you can understand. Bret you said it best, we’re okay at Thrive Financial Services if you don’t become a client. It’s all part of education advocacy on the Roadmap to Retirement.

Important Links:

• Thrive Retirement Roadmap Review
• Diane Cardano