Sorting out the financial mess left after a death

A partner’s or spouse’s death is one of the most emotionally wrenching events in a person’s life. After a death, there are numerous financial issues that confront the person left behind. Besides the settlement of the estate, there are insurance companies to call, banks to visit, credit cards to cancel, documents to collect and perhaps business issues unwind. The financial challenges can be especially daunting for women. Husbands tend to earn more than their wives, and the end of that income can be a big blow. And in more cases than not, husbands oversee the household finances, often leaving their widows scrambling to sort everything out. In this article, Susan Covell Alpert presents some of the key challenges and points toward her book, “Driving Solo: Dealing With Grief and the Business of Financial Survival,” intended to help others find their way through this morass.