By LouAnn Schulfer, AWMA®, AIF®
Accredited Wealth Management Advisor^SM
Accredited Investment Fiduciary®

With over two decades of client experiences, I have had the honor to be the trusted financial professional for many widows as clients.  Our mission statement is To Provide Financial Advice for Life.  Rather than being a transactional service provider, we create lifetime relationships with our clients and their families.  With that backdrop in mind, one may now understand how a widowed client relationship is one of the most emotional and rewarding positions to be in as a Wealth Management Advisor.  At a Wine, Women and Wealth workshop, one of our clients explained it like this “You know how when you are preparing for marriage, you’re told that two become one?  It’s true, because since my husband passed away, I feel like half of me is gone.”

What advice can we offer?  First, if you are in a long-term relationship or marriage, the harsh reality is that at some point one of you will be in the widow’s position.  Periodically, think through what can be done to prepare and how this will be handled when it happens, because it will happen.  When the day comes that you must face losing your life partner, know that you are not alone, and nothing has to be done in a rush.  I hear often from women how they trust their intuition, and from men how they trust their gut.  Either way, there is something inside each of us that tells us when something feels right.  Finally, remember that a bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the curve.  Widowhood is not the end. It’s just a new chapter.

LouAnn Schulfer is co-owner of Schulfer & Associates, LLC Wealth Management and can be reached at (715) 343-9600 or louann.schulfer@lpl.com.  www.SchulferAndAssociates.com
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor.  Member FINRA/SIPC.