3 Financial Steps you should make immediately if you were widowed this year

[gwendally]

Most of the time we tell the bereaved to not make any major financial moves after they've suffered a loss. Yes, but, do these three things at least.

1.) Attend to your IRAs. Most of these things are calendar-year things, they can't wait until tax time to hear you should have done it.

• You need to decide if you're going to turn an IRA into a spousal IRA or not. Basically, if you're under age 60 you probably want to keep it as an inherited IRA and if you're over 60 you probably want to convert it to a spousal IRA, but you may also need to consider if you and your spouse have different beneficiaries.
• If either you or your spouse were over 72 then you have a Required Minimum Distribution that needs attention.
• If you are over 70.5 (yes, I mean six months past your 70th birthday) then you may wish to consider making charitable gifts from inside the IRA.
• If your tax bracket is going to be higher next year (when you're in the "single" tax bracket) then this is the time to do Roth Conversions. Consult with your tax advisor ASAP, as these things take a week or so to finalize and they have to be done before year-end.

2.) Contact social security about whether your benefits can be improved. They'll retroactively increase for six months, but not longer than that, and six months goes by quickly!

3.) Update your beneficiaries on workplace retirement plans and insurance policies. Chances are you left everything to your spouse, right? Revisit your choices here. (You can always change your mind later, after the dust settles, but the general rule on estate planning is there are only two times to do it: too soon and too late.)

This is just a rough draft. I like to use this place for my "go splat" version of work blog stuff. I always appreciate the feedback people give in the comments when I get any!