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.’’