You don’t have to figure this out alone.

If you have recently lost your spouse, a few financial decisions may need attention soon. Many others can wait. I will help you understand what matters first and take the next steps at a pace that feels manageable.

A small number of financial decisions after a death have real deadlines. Most do not. I help you sort out which is which, handle the ones with a clock on them, and leave everything else until you want to look at it.

If this happened recently

In the first few months there is no point building a financial plan. There are three or four things that have to happen: the bills keep getting paid, the benefits you are entitled to get claimed, and the small number of decisions with real deadlines do not quietly expire.

Almost everything else can wait. You may be told otherwise, sometimes by well-meaning family and sometimes by people who would like to sell you something. That is usually not true.

What typically has a deadline

  • Survivor benefit elections on some pensions
  • Inherited retirement-account decisions that may have deadlines
  • Life insurance claims
  • Tax filing and other tax-related deadlines

What can usually wait

  • Selling the house
  • Major portfolio changes
  • Large gifts to children
  • Purchasing a new financial product

Which of these applies to you depends on your specific accounts and benefits. That is usually the first thing I help you sort out.

The right timing depends on your accounts, benefits, family circumstances, and immediate needs.

Woman at a kitchen table with a cup of tea

When you’re ready for the longer view

Somewhere after the first year, for most people, the questions change. They stop being “What do I do this week?” and become “What does the rest of this look like?”

Will I be okay?

I help you see what your financial picture may look like over the next 10 years and what your savings may need to support. I will also spot potential red flags before they become real problems.

Income

When to claim the Social Security survivor benefit, what happens with a pension, and how much can come from savings. Where your next paycheck comes from, and whether it supports the life you want to keep living.

Taxes

Your filing status changes, and with it your brackets. People sometimes call this the widow’s penalty. It is often larger than expected, and it is very plannable if you see it coming a year out rather than the April after.

Investments

A portfolio built for one person’s plan, at a level of risk that fits your life now. I will review what you own, why you own it, and whether it still fits the income and security you need.

Estate

Retitling accounts, updating beneficiaries, and reviewing your own documents. I organize the financial side so you can see what needs updating and what questions to bring to an attorney.

The practical

Which accounts to keep, which to close, and what to do with the paperwork. Six statements a month becomes one.

If your spouse handled the money

A lot of the people I work with tell me some version of: “My spouse handled all of this, and I do not know where to start.”

There is nothing unusual about that, and it is not a failing. In many households, one person handles the investments while the other handles something else. It only becomes visible now.

I start from wherever you are. I explain things once, and then again if you would like. I do not use jargon, and I do not assume you should already know something.

Most of the people I work with are here in Spokane or nearby in north Idaho, and I am glad to meet in person if that is easier. A fair amount of this happens over video regardless of where you are.

If it helps to know who you would be talking to, here is a bit about me.

Questions I get asked most

When can I claim the Social Security survivor benefit?

As early as age 60, or 50 if you are disabled, and at any age if you are caring for the deceased’s child under 16. Claiming at 60 permanently reduces the survivor benefit to roughly 71.5% of what your spouse was receiving or entitled to. Waiting until your own full retirement age gets you 100%. Unlike your own retirement benefit, the survivor benefit does not keep growing past full retirement age.

The useful part is that the survivor benefit and your own retirement benefit are separate, and you can switch between them. Some people take a reduced survivor benefit at 60 and leave their own record untouched until 70, then switch. Others do the reverse. Which order is better depends on the relative size of the two benefits, and it is worth running before you file anything, because some of this is difficult to undo.

What is the widow’s penalty and how much will my taxes go up?

It is the tax increase that comes from filing as single instead of married filing jointly, and for most people it starts the second calendar year after a spouse dies. The standard deduction roughly halves and the brackets compress, so the same income can land in a higher bracket. It often raises Medicare IRMAA surcharges two years later as well.

For the year of death you can generally still file jointly. If you have a dependent child you may qualify for qualifying surviving spouse status for two more years, which keeps the joint brackets, but most widows and widowers do not have that, so the change lands in year two. It is very plannable if you know it is coming, and most of the planning happens during the first year while joint rates still apply.

Do I have to do anything with my spouse’s IRA right away?

Usually not immediately, but the choices have real consequences and some of them are not reversible. A surviving spouse can generally treat an inherited IRA as their own, roll it into their own IRA, or keep it titled as an inherited IRA. Which is better depends mostly on your age, your spouse’s age, and whether you might need to withdraw before 59 and a half.

If you are under 59 and a half and may need the money, keeping it as an inherited IRA avoids the 10% early withdrawal penalty. If you are older than your spouse was, staying a beneficiary can delay required distributions. If you are younger, treating it as your own usually delays them. Nobody should move this money before that comparison is run.

Should I sell the house after my spouse dies?

Almost never in the first year, and rarely for financial reasons alone. There is one timing item worth knowing: if you sell within two years of your spouse’s death and you meet the ownership and use tests, you can generally still claim the $500,000 joint capital gain exclusion rather than the $250,000 single amount.

That matters for people with a lot of appreciation and very little else, and not much for anyone else. Washington is also a community property state, which generally means the whole property received a step-up in basis at death rather than half of it, so the taxable gain may be far smaller than you expect. Check the numbers before treating that two-year window as a reason to move.

How long should I wait before making big financial decisions?

Longer than people will tell you. Outside the handful of items with statutory deadlines, most decisions can sit for six to twelve months at no cost. Selling investments, buying an annuity, gifting to children, and moving house are all easier to delay than to undo.

The pressure usually arrives from two directions: family who want to be helpful, and people who earn a commission when you decide. Neither of those is a deadline. The first thing I do is separate the short list that has an actual clock on it from the long list that does not, so you can stop carrying all of it at the same time.

Do I need to retitle our joint accounts?

Eventually, and it is mostly administrative. Jointly titled accounts generally pass to you automatically, but your spouse’s name still needs removing and your own beneficiary designations need updating, because those forms override your will. Accounts titled only in your spouse’s name follow their beneficiary designation, or go through probate if there was not one.

The step people skip is updating their own beneficiaries afterward. If your spouse was the primary beneficiary on everything you own and you never named a new one, the contingent beneficiary inherits, and that is frequently a name chosen twenty years ago. Fixing it takes an afternoon.

If cost is on your mind before you pick up the phone, here is how the fees work.

How I work with you

  • Nothing gets decided on my schedule. If you need six months before you are willing to look at the investment accounts, that is a normal amount of time.

  • The first session is usually just an inventory. What accounts exist, what benefits you are entitled to, where the documents are, and what is being paid automatically out of which account.

  • Anything with a real deadline gets flagged and handled. Everything else goes on a list and we work through it in whatever order you want.

  • Where there is an attorney or a CPA involved, I write the questions so you are not the one translating between three people who each assume you already know something.

  • A long-term plan comes when you want one. Some people are ready at four months. Some are ready at two years. Both are fine.

If You’d Like To Talk

If you’d like to talk

The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If it turns out you need one afternoon of help and not an advisor, I will say so, and you can call me again in a year if that changes.

Schedule a conversation

Or call 509-795-2550 if that’s easier right now.

If you’re not ready yet, that’s alright. This page will still be here.