Knowing how to help clients navigate the emotional upheaval of a sudden change in financial status may be as important as plotting their investment strategies.

That’s the opinion of three advisors who specialize in dealing with a client’s reversal of fortun—through the sale of a business, death of a spouse, divorce, an inheritance or insurance settlement, stock options, a lottery win or a significant financial loss.

David Rust and Shane Moore, two Austin, Texas-based advisors who are managing partners of Quartz Financial, have written two books about the issue of financial change: “Sudden Wealth ... Blessing or Burden?’’ and their current work, “Single ... Not by Choice: Emotional and Financial Guidance for Women After the Loss of Their Spouse.’’ In researching their second book, they interviewed widows, daughters of widows, therapists and estate planning lawyers.

Rust and Moore write that there are more than 13 million widows in the United States, and that about 700,000 women are widowed annually in the U.S. Of all married women, they write, 75 percent will be widowed at least once in their lives.

“A few years ago, we  decided to focus on one specific area of sudden wealth, and that was among widows,’’ Rust said. “We wanted to dive into the traumatic emotional challenges that widows face. Probably the most obvious statement is, it’s complicated: Grieving over the loss of a husband and trying to retain a sense of normalcy is a daunting process, and then throw in family and friends who have their own expectations, and it gets much more complicated.

“Through our interviews, we learned that is incumbent on advisors to know more about the emotional challenges of how widows deal with sudden wealth. We list those challenges in the book as well as the triggers,’’ he said.

“We wanted the book to be a good resource for advisors interacting with widows. The goal is to help advisors understand better and to maybe have more empathy as they work with women going through the process,’’ Moore said.

Susan Bradley, founder of the Florida-based Sudden Money Institute, which trains financial advisors in financial transitions planning, and the co-author of “Sudden Money: Managing a Financial Windfall,’’ said empathy is a critical tool in advising clients undergoing change.

“You have to have meaningful conversations in order to have productive meetings, and help clients build confidence at the very time that they are shaking,’’ Bradley said. “So many of us in the profession have had the necessary technical training, but we haven’t been trained in how to deal with people in the human side of the equation, particularly when there is a change in money."

At the upcoming Financial Advisor magazine conference “Invest in Women’’ in Atlanta, Bradley will present a workshop, entitled, “In the Client’s Shoes.’’

“If you’re successful in this business, you have good communication skills, but the workshop takes that much further," Bradley said. "We ask, ‘What about your client’s communication skills?’ I teach how to enhance their clients’ communication skills by helping the clients identify what really makes them productive and comfortable, how do they like to be set up in a meeting, what works in a meeting, how to follow up a meeting, and particularly, what happens when they are in high stress. If they can identify that, they can have a conversation about it and know how to access that information from that day forward."

Rust and Moore said that they help their widowed clients identify their most pressing anxiety: fear.

“It’s about fear of the unknown, of making a mistake that will cause them to lose their money. ... They are even fearful of not knowing what they don’t know,’’ Rust said.

“What we know about anyone who has experienced sudden wealth is that they are afraid of losing their money, so for the first two years after the event, we invest their funds very conservatively, across the board. We tell them, 'We have been here before, we understand,'" Moore said. "Ninety-five percent of sudden wealth recipients are much more conservative in those first two years, but after that time, they become comfortable about being personally responsible for being in charge of money that they had not had before. The majority get into more normalized investment plans, and after those first few years, they are more open and communicative."

Bradley, Rust and Moore said women clients tend to be more open to asking questions if they need information and to be open to learning.

“Women admit what they don’t know; men have harder time with it,’’ Rust said.

Since the overwhelming number of spouses who survive are women, what do the advisors make of the research that says widows often change financial advisors when they become single?

“Seventy percent of divorced and widowed women leave their financial advisor within two years,’’ Bradley said. “Clients really need conversations. They need to feel safe, need to have details and big views and to learn how to step back when there is change. It’s really, really stressful—change actually shifts how our bodies work and our brains work. It’s knowing what kind of guidance you can give them without becoming a therapist.’’

“That lack of trust has been an industry issue for a long time. The industry has been accused of pushing product rather than putting the client first. We have to overcome this and we do that by letting our clients know we take responsibility for their financial well-being, that we do operate in a fiduciary role,’’ Rust said.

“We are available to clients seven days a week. Now, a lot of times that will be nighttime email on a Saturday or a Sunday. Surprisingly, one of us is always looking at the email. They know if they have questions on Sunday they will get a response from us and that helps reinforce the trust that we built with them from the get-go,’’ Rust said.

Or, as Bradley put it, “Research is seeing financial decision-making as being 70 percent emotional and 30 percent rational.’’