Suddenly Widowed
POTENTIAL SITUATION
Jill’s husband Bill’s career seemed on the fast track. A career airline pilot, he had been recently promoted to Vice President in a well-known airline company. However, Bill unexpectedly dies from an aneurism while on a business trip and now Jill suddenly finds herself thrust into the role of financial decision maker, a task for which she is wholly unprepared. She’s now expected to make decisions about Bill’s 401k, pension, company stock options, life insurance, and pension options. On top of that, Bill had been mostly in charge of their investment portfolio and the college savings accounts for their college-age children. Without help, Jill feels that she will make serious missteps that could put her and her children’s financial future in jeopardy.
PARAGON’S SOLUTION
PARAGON’s team of Certified Financial Planner™ professionals will create an action plan for Jill that outlines the items that required her immediate attention and those that can wait. Our team of professionals create multiple scenarios that would allow Jill to choose the best ways to receive her husband’s pension and insurance benefits, maximize her Social Security survivor benefits, and rebuild their investment portfolios from an aggressive growth portfolio into one better designed to provide her with lifetime income. We would also connect Jill with a grief counselor to help her cope with her extraordinary loss, and a college funding specialist to make sure her financial decisions won’t disrupt her children’s college plans - and, because of the family’s change in income - help her children qualify for financial aid and scholarships that they previously were ineligible for.
VALUE TO THE CLIENT
PARAGON would be right there to help Jill through this difficult time, assisting her in making sound financial decisions. Stress-testing the financial scenarios she can choose will provide her with confidence that she would be able to maintain her lifestyle and still provide the financial legacy she and Bill had envisioned for their children.
*Please Note: Limitations: The above Case Study is hypothetical-not involving actual Paragon clients. Case Studies illustrate the hypothetical experience of a fictitious client based on a scenario that an actual client might experience. The Case Studies are designed to generally illustrate how we may provide our services to our clients. Keeping in mind that no two clients, situations, or experiences are exactly alike, the Case Studies are not to be construed as an endorsement of Paragon by any of its past or current clients, nor any assurance that Paragon may be able to help any client achieve the same satisfactory results. To the contrary, none of the Case Studies should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results or satisfaction if Paragon is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services.