Women in Transition – Elizabeth, recently widowed

Elizabeth came to Rockwood after her husband lost his three-year battle with cancer. After devoting the last few years to caring for her husband, she now faced the daunting challenge of ensuring financial security for herself and her adult children. Elizabeth's late husband, a high-level corporate executive, had always taken care of the family finances, leaving her without the confidence necessary to move forward financially.

Initially, Elizabeth felt overwhelmed in her attempt determine how to organize the assets to meet her immediate and long-term needs. She needed help understanding her husband's stock options, deferred compensation plan, 401(k), pension, and the survivor benefits to which she is entitled from his employer. Rockwood was able to assist with transitioning the mortgages into Elizabeth’s name, implementing updated Property and Casualty Insurance policies to include her increasingly valuable art collection.

Now that she had the confidence to take the reins financially, we helped her purchase a vacation home to serve as the family epicenter and gathering place for her loved ones who were scattered across the country. In parallel with that purchase, we helped her modernize and update her estate plan to provide multi-generational support for her children and grandchildren.

During that process, it became clear that she possessed a vibrant charitable spirit, and she enjoyed the implementation of a prudent charitable giving program using a Donor Advised Fund to maximize the tax-efficiency of her charitable gifts.

Together with Elizabeth, we created a sound investment plan aligned with her current and future income needs to give her the confidence that she can meet her financial obligations and maintain her dignity and independence throughout her lifetime.

We meet with Elizabeth on a quarterly basis to help her implement the plan and structure her cash flow. Elizabeth is a model client as evidenced by her engagement in the wealth planning process and dedication to informed financial decisions for the benefit of her entire family.