Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Wings for Widows - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 8, 2026

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Wings for Widows - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 8, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's
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  Dothan campus, identifying and preserving historical documents
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  and photographs for research related to the Wiregrass region. More information
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  at troy.edu/wiregrassarchives.
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  From Troy Public Radio,
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  this is In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  The sudden loss of a loved one can be devastating emotionally,
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  emotionally and financially. Certified financial planner
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  David Hayes learned of an organization called
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  the Foundation for Financial Planning and
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  its Wings for Widows nonprofit. So he decided
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  to share his expertise as a volunteer with those
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  who are bereaved. He joins us today on
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  The Exchange from his office at Longbow Capital Partners
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  in Homewood, Alabama, with advice on how to navigate
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  the loss of a spouse.
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  David Hayes, thank you so much for joining us as a Certified
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  Financial Planner here on The Exchange.
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  Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. David,
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  Certified Financial Planners have a lot of expertise to
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  share with people. However, you were moved to give back
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  in service. What happened? Yeah, so I
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  had quite a few ladies come in looking
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  for guidance and/or second opinions who have been
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  struggling with maybe divorce or the loss of a spouse.
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  And that really opened up my eyes to the need
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  for strong financial guidance during those really difficult
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  seasons of life. And so when I started doing a deeper
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  dive into that, I just realized how big the need really was.
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  You delved into an organization called the Foundation
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  for Financial Planning and ended up with a
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  program called Wings for Widows. What's that about? That's right.
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  So yeah, the Foundation for Financial Planning is a wonderful organization
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  that connects certified financial practitioners with some
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  nonprofit organizations that offer pro bono financial
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  planning for a variety of different people in need,
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  veterans, widows, terminal illnesses.
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  And so yeah, because of my experiences with some of my
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  clients in the past, I was drawn to Wings for Widows.
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  It's a wonderful organization. It is specifically
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  for widows who are dealing with the loss of a
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  loved one and also having to make financial decisions during that
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  grief period. And so I really enjoy using my
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  expertise to walk them through making some of those tough financial decisions.
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  When you began this volunteer work,
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  what were the situations you found these widows in?
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  Some of the widows had just recently lost their husband,
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  so they were still very much going through the grieving process while having
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  to gather documents and figure out login information
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  and go through estate and probate. That's a
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  lot to handle. For anybody, but especially someone who's grieving. And then some
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  other people that I've worked with, it might have been a year or two
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  since their spouse passed away. I think it's always better to try to reach out
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  and get help sooner rather than later, because there are some things that
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  we really want to try to attend to right when a life event happens.
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  Usually, people fall in one of those two categories. It's such a sensitive
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  subject, as you have discovered. People can be very sick.
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  Their loved one has that responsibility for their healthcare
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  right there at the moment. And then when a death happens
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  unexpectedly, where do they turn? What do they do?
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  Can you give us some advice there? Yeah, absolutely. So I
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  would hope that you might already have some plans in place.
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  If you're working with a CFP professional and they're doing their
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  job, they should have everything in one place that they've
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  helped you gather. But Having a conversation with your spouse before something happens
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  is always the best way to handle it. What I recommend to my clients
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  is go ahead and put together a folder, whether it be a hard copy
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  or electronic, that includes all the important documents
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  that you would need. And so we want to be able to put our hands
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  on wills and any trust documents if
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  there's a trust involved. We want to be able to just get our
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  hands on something as simple as a monthly budget. A lot of spouses
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  kind of let one handle it and the other one doesn't know much about it.
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  I think recording login information, log into your bank,
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  log into your credit card or whatever your login might be,
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  log into your investment accounts, 401s, so that
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  someone can have access to that information if they need
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  it. With your experience, how would you advise having
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  that conversation with a spouse? It's such a sensitive
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  area. Yes, it is sensitive, but it is necessary.
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  And so I think the best way to bring up the conversation is
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  just being direct and asking them, what do you think would happen
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  if you were gone, or I were gone tomorrow? And then
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  that can really kind of put it in a very practical frame of reference
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  of, yeah, how do I get money out of our bank account? How do I
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  pay the bills? How do I get life insurance benefits,
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  and start thinking through, okay, what all do we need to make sure
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  that we're on the same page with if one of us was suddenly gone
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  and the other one had to handle all the affairs by themselves.
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  Back to the Wings for Widows Foundation.
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  How do you work with a widow or a grieving spouse?
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  Where do you start? Wings for Widows does a great job
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  of doing the introduction. So a widow would go onto their
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  website and request assistance, and then they
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  would reach out to the certified financial planner and
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  do the introduction. And then from there, I would reach out
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  to them usually through an email, sharing condolences and
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  asking them when would be a good time for us to jump on a phone
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  call, just an introductory phone call to kind of understand what
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  situation they're in, kind of the specifics of their case,
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  and tell them a little bit about myself. And then from there,
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  if the widow wants to proceed, we would set
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  up a second meeting where we would go more in depth on the details
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  of What does the balance sheet look like? What are the concerns
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  that are at the top of your priority list right now? Are there any things
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  that you really are worried about that are causing you to lose sleep
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  at night or really stressed out over? And we would start just by gathering that
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  information and tackling those topics kind of in order of priority.
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  You hit on something important when you talked about losing sleep
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  at night and the anxiety. This must be why you're recommending
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  reaching out to a certified financial planner sooner
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  rather than later? Absolutely. Again, it's, it's a
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  very delicate situation because we know that their
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  whole life has been turned upside down and they are grieving, and it is very
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  difficult to think clearly in some of those situations. But we
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  do want to go ahead and start addressing just the
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  things that absolutely need to be addressed right away. I usually recommend
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  to my clients that we don't want to make any decisions that we don't have
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  to make for at least 3 to 6 months after our spouse passes away.
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  But there are some of those decisions that we do need to make
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  in those first few months, like going ahead and getting our hands on
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  the will and starting the probate process and
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  opening up that in the state of Alabama, it has to be open
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  for at least 6 months. We want to go ahead and start that window.
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  And then yeah, there's other things that we need to address by collecting
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  insurance benefits, or maybe canceling insurance policies that are no
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  longer necessary. Anything like that, that we can save money on or
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  making sure that we're collecting the money that we deserve, we want to go ahead
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  and get that process going. So here is the importance
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  of having that folder, going ahead and building that folder out
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  so that you have something to rely on when the death happens.
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  Absolutely. Unfortunately, I've worked with quite a few widows
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  who were left without a folder like that, and it drags the
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  process out, creates a lot more of that angst and stress.
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  And then you see the flip side of that where someone did have it organized
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  and neat in one place. And while the processes still can be cumbersome,
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  it is much easier than it could have been without it. The Wings for
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  Widows and the Foundation for Financial Planning, 2 great
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  resources. I want to thank you for your advice today. Absolutely.
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  Thank you. And I, yes, I would definitely encourage your listeners
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  to go check out both of those organizations. Joining us from Homewood
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  was David Hayes, a certified financial planner who
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  shares his volunteer time with the nonprofit Wings for Widows.
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  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus, which is a
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  podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And feel free to
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  get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.