Supporting Widowed Clients: Plan Impacts and Communication Strategies

Over 95% of surviving spouses are women, making them one of the largest beneficiaries of inherited wealth. As these women go through the grief and upheaval of losing their spouse, they often feel disconnected from their financial advisor. This results in approximately 70% of widows moving their assets to a new financial advisor after their spouse’s death.

In this webinar, Kathleen Rehl, Ph.D., CFP®, draws on her personal journey, academic research, and field-tested strategies to help financial advisors more effectively support widowed clients. She outlines the three stages of widowhood and introduces specialized planning tools tailored to each phase of grief.

Kathleen also shares best practices for building lasting, trust-based relationships during this sensitive life transition. Through real-world case studies and practical techniques, advisors will learn how to meet widows where they are, both emotionally and financially, to provide compassionate, impactful guidance.

During this webinar, advisors will learn how to:
- Understand the current statistics on widowhood, including wealth transfer patterns and why widows often terminate their relationships with their existing financial advisors.
- Explain the emotional and financial challenges experienced during early widowhood.
- Differentiate between the three stages of widowhood and apply appropriate financial planning strategies to support a widow through each stage.
- Develop communication techniques and action strategies for new widows to enhance trust, empathy, and long-term engagement with widowed clients.
- Utilize widow-focused planning tools, such as the Clouds Exercise, Now-Soon-Later, Financial Feelings Survey, and Values Clarification.



Accessing the webinar:
You can find your custom link by accessing the email confirmations that have been sent to you via email from webinar.host@bigmarker.com. You can also find your individual sign-on link within the downloadable calendar invite for the webinar.

Continuing Education (CE): 1.5 Credits
For attendees who want to receive CE credit for designations managed by the CFP Board, IWI, and American College, we will report your attendance directly to these organizations within 72 hours as long as you enter your certification numbers during registration and attend the live session for at least 75 minutes.

For attendees who want to receive CE credit as an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR), we will report your attendance directly to FINRA within 72 hours as long as you enter your certification numbers during registration and attend the live session for at least 75 minutes. Additionally, Kitces Members must have purchased the IAR Add-on to have their CE reported to FINRA as an IAR.

For attendees who want to receive CE credit as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), you must attend the live session for at least 75 minutes and complete all polls presented at the live event. A certificate will be provided to you for self-reporting to NASBA.

All attendees who meet the minimum attendance requirement of 75 minutes will also receive a completion certificate that you can use to report CE to other organizations. We don't report for state-level insurance licensing although some states may accept completion certificates if you self-report.

Recordings:
Non-Members: Those who are NOT Kitces.com Members will have access to the recording for 30 days. Though continuing education is available for the live session, the recording is not CE eligible. 

Kitces.com Basic & Premier Members: The video presentation and a recording of the live Q&A will be available on the Webinars page in the Members Section. Note: If you were not able to attend the live session for the full 50 minutes, successful completion of a quiz will be required in order to receive CE for viewing the RECORDED VERSION posted to the Members Section.