13 Financial Moves to Make After Losing a Spouse

13 Financial Moves to Make After Losing a Spouse

Nothing upends your world like the death of a spouse, leaving you at a loss for what to do next.

by: Janet Kidd Stewart   April 29, 2020

Nothing upends your world like the death of a spouse, leaving you at a loss for what to do next. When death comes before you realize your retirement plans, it can be particularly devastating.

Triage Your Tasks

Of the roughly 15 million widows and widowers in the United States, about 2.8 million women and 800,000 men are younger than age 65, according to Census Bureau data. But whether you are of retirement age or not, making the right financial moves early can set you up for greater financial stability later on.

The oft-quoted mantra of telling grieving spouses not to make any financial decisions for a year is misguided at best and disastrous at worst. Many decisions simply can’t be postponed for a year, and others shouldn’t be rushed into. “We advocate a much more nuanced timeline,” says Susan Bradley, founder of the Sudden Money Institute, which trains financial advisers to work with clients in transition.

She recommends breaking tasks down into three piles — urgent, soon and later — with those in the last pile being perhaps two years or more down the road, depending on individual circumstances.

A surviving stay-at-home spouse with school-age kids may have the resources to keep the family home until the youngest graduates, for example, but then may need (or want) to downsize and head back to work. An empty nester who had been counting on a few more years of a spouse’s income before retirement — and at least a few years of dual Social Security checks — may need to adjust more quickly.

Gather Documents

Now, for the practical matters. If it’s still early days, begin by making sure the funeral director you’re working with has notified the Social Security Administration of the death and ordered 15 to 20 certified copies of the death certificate for tasks such as retitling the mortgage and changing owner names on financial accounts.

You’ll need one or more of these documents to apply for Social Security benefits, work with your spouse’s employer to distribute life insurance and other benefits such as final pay and retirement plan savings, collect private life insurance proceeds and create a cash flow statement and household budget.

Keep Good Records

Get a notebook for logging conversations with your spouse’s employer, Social Security clerks and others. Advisers and survivors say this is essential in the foggy, early days of grief.

“I kept notes on everything,” says Sue Knight Deutsch, who lost her husband Michael to colon cancer in 2009. He was 55; she was 53. “I had a notebook and every time I made a call I wrote down a date and case number for the call so when I would call again and get a new person I could tell them the number.”

Also, keep an expandable file near the notebook. The file should hold the death certificates and other important papers, correspondence related to the spouse’s death and current bills due and paid.

Organize the Bills

If your spouse handled the bills and you need a new system, create one box or tray for unopened mail and make sure every piece goes into that box. Look through the checkbook or online banking account for past or recurring payments. If you have access to your spouse’s email account, look for electronic notifications of bills due.

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