Death of a Spouse INTRO: When a spouse dies the surviving spouse faces more than emotional trauma. Often there are many financial issues that must be addressed and decisions to be made that can significantly impact one’s lifestyle. Bruce Hagan, certified financial planner with RAI Investments and Corporate Securities Group is with us to discuss some specific steps that can be taken in this process. Q1. The last time you were here you stated that it was important to give the surviving spouse time to "stabilize" and not to rush into making long-term investment decisions. Today you’re going to tell us how to proceed once one has gone through a period of healing? A1. Yes. Hopefully some basic financial planning has previously taken place to provide some funds to protect the surviving spouse and children from the loss of income previously provided by the now deceased spouse. Possibly some more elaborate planning has occurred to address estate planning issues such as how to best take advantage of the unified credit. At any rate, life will be different now and a surviving spouse should take time to reflect on their financial perspective up to this point and proactively choose their own future path. Q2. O.K., what is the first step in the process? A2. The first step is always an information sharing session with the financial advisor. Even if you’ve worked with an advisor for years, you need to sit down and candidly discuss the dangers, opportunities and strengths that lie within your financial state. Three areas that must be analyzed: All aspects of the family’s cash flow Investment Policy (which may be dramatically different than before) and Estate Planning Q3. I understand the cash flow and estate planning, exactly what do you mean by Investment Policy? A3. An organized plan of how to deploy all of your assets to best help you reach your goals. And I mean all assets, not just CDs and stocks, but your house, business interests, everything that appears on the asset side of a personal balance sheet. Presumably, all the planning you made to this point took into account both persons needs, wants, risk tolerances, etc. This should all be reexamined now and the best ongoing plan may well require changes, which leads us to the next step. Q4. Which is? A4. Establishing strategies and creating a financial plan. We take the information gathered in step 1 and implement basic, time-tested methods that have worked for other surviving spouses. With the help of an experienced financial planner the spouse may discover alternative choices that help him or her enhance their lifestyle. And a good plan will allow some flexibility for future adaptations. Q5. And what is the final step? A5. Evaluate tax issues. All things equal, when having there are alternatives to accomplish a goal, the logical choice will be the one least affected by taxes. Tax consequences are revisited prior to plan implementation. The discussion offered above and in the movie should not be considered an endorsement by Florida State University. They are offered in the educational sense of providing thought-provoking information for our Web audience. Copyright shared with Florida News Channel (FNC), all rights reserved. Broadcast 7/7/99