Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA®, CES™ - Navigating Financial Decisions as a Widow

Stacy Francis is the Founder of Francis Financial and Savvy Ladies.

She joined me to talk about the steps to take after a loved one dies, what sort of team is important to have in place (both personally and professionally), major mistakes she has seen widows make while grieving, and fantastic tips to navigate grief while talking about the differences between a therapist and grief coach.

There is a lot to takeaway from today’s conversation whether you are recently widowed, widowed in the past, or are a friend or family member of a widow.

I appreciated Stacy’s vulnerability in sharing why she went into financial planning and started a non-profit, as well as the emotional side of loss with therapy and grief coaches.

Helpful Links

• https://www.griefrecoverymethod.com/
• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists

Transcript:

Elliott: [00:00:00] Stacy, welcome to the podcast. I appreciate you being here.

Stacy: Thank you, Elliott. I’m very excited to talk to you today.

Elliott: Thank you. Well, I thought maybe we could start things off. We’ll talk about widows and grief and other things that accompany that a little bit more. But I’d love to start with just a brief sort of background on yourself and the non-profit you founded and everything that you have going on.

Stacy: Uh, thank you for asking. Um, I feel really blessed I get to do work that is, um, unbelievably satisfying, empowering, um, But I never thought of myself as becoming a financial advisor when I was a little girl. In fact, I was the girl in math that, uh, I sat in the back, uh, which I shouldn’t have because I actually needed glasses and I didn’t have ’em back then because I cared what people thought about me.

Um, and I didn’t raise my hand, uh, in math. And, uh, however, I had a experience that made me realize how important, uh, knowing about money and being empowered around [00:01:00] money was. Um, and that was watching my grandmother who. Admitted to me that she felt financially trapped in her marriage. And, uh, my grandfather was not a nice gentleman.

Um, he was an alcoholic and he actually, um, there was physical abuse. And so I grew up as a little girl watching this, and it became so violent that she actually ended up passing away from. From the abuse. So it completely changed who I was and at a very early age taught me a lesson that, um, you know, no one should have to learn that way.

And it became my life mission to particularly work with women helping women. And I launched a beautiful charity in her name, uh, in her honor when I was 26, called Savvy Ladies. And. We work with tens of thousands of women across the United States, um, all pro bono. We have workshops and TED talk like videos, [00:02:00] hundreds of them.

Anything you could ever imagine you have a question about with finances. And we also have, um, the only help line in the country where women can. One on one free of charge with a certified financial planner, a CPA for taxes, whatever they need. Um, and we’ve already made, we’re on track to make about 2000 matches this year between women in our, our amazing, uh, financial expert volunteers, um, to be able to work for that one, that one time.

Um, so. Really powerful and, um, I love my work. Um, how I actually pay for it is, uh, in creating the charity cuz I did not come from, from money. Um, I started a beautiful wealth management firm the year after, 20 years ago. And here we are 20 years later. We have about 220 clients, primarily women. And we do comprehensive fee only fiduciary financial planning for them and [00:03:00] also, uh, wealth management, which is a fancy way of saying, making sure that their portfolio is invested in a very.

Best way to get them out to H 95 and beyond. Um, and I have 17, uh, planners and advisors with me now. Um, and the charity too, has grown. I have four, uh, full-time, uh, team members, staff members, and a board of about 20. And it just, I’ll be honest, Elliott, um, I’m just so. So in awe of, of, of where we are, what we’ve been able to do, kind of what, what my life looks like now.

Um, it, it really is amazing. I, I just feel really blessed. I feel so good to, to do really challenging work through Francis Financial, but then also through Savvy Ladies, be able to help women who are really struggling financially that couldn’t go anywhere else. So, yeah, it feels really, it feels really. I

Elliott: bet that that sounds amazing, and just how much that has grown since age 26 and starting that.

Yeah. And um, everything that has come [00:04:00] from that, and I, I’m amazed 2000 people. I mean, that’s great. I, I joined the organization recently and did my first consultation with someone. So, um, if people wanna get involved with that, What’s the best way, cuz I do have some financial planners that listen to this podcast as well.

So right here at the beginning, maybe we pitch that a

Stacy: little bit. Yeah, no, thank you Elliot. I’m so, uh, grateful to you because we need to also expand the number of our volunteers. We have about 150 volunteers like you, and this could not have happened. Without you and without all of those volunteers. Um, and so if you’re interested, you can go to savvy ladies.org and just remember, Savvy is with Two Vs.

Cuz I say it’s very, very good, very, very savvy. Um, if you go to savvy ladies.org, right on there, you can go to the helpline and it talks about, uh, volunteering. And what’s great about volunteering, I don’t know if you’ve found this, but you can customize it to like whatever timeframe you have. So if you have one hour a month or two hours, most people.

Um, work with two women two hours a month. [00:05:00] Um, but then we’ll have people who have retired from the profession who are working with five or six, and then other people will put theirs on their volunteering on pause, um, because they’re, you know, going on vacation with their kids, or, you know, it’s a busy time of the year, so it’s really flexible and you do it via phone or via Zoom so you don’t have to go anywhere.

And it’s, it’s just such a really nice way to give. But thank you Elliott, because we couldn’t do this without you. I mean that thank you makes our volunteers that, that like make the help line actually run. So yeah. Yeah.

Elliott: Good. Well I appreciate you letting people know where they can check it out. And also if you’re looking for help, you can also go there, you’re looking for that one or two hour consult and need help getting started with something great resource.

Stacy: Yeah, it is a great resource. It’s confidential. Um, and. Hand match people based on the question they have and that volunteer and what their expertise is. And the wonderful thing about our volunteers like you, like people are doing this other kindness of [00:06:00] their heart. They really wanna help. And there’s like, there’s like no judgment.

So like however you show up where, you know, wherever you are in your life with your finances, um, they’re just there with a big hug to.

Elliott: Absolutely. Let’s shift gears here a little bit and go and talk about what it’s like to be a widow from a financial planning perspective, from a grief perspective, from a lot of different perspectives.

And just in your work. Yeah. Through your firm and working with clients. I, I’m curious sort of what, what should someone do? After they lose a loved one. And I know that’s a very broad question, but I’m curious sort of what comes to mind, what you’ve seen. Can you speak to that?

Stacy: It’s a great question. Um, uh, one of our superpowers is working with women who are on their own because their spouse has passed away.

And, um, one of the biggest pieces that I’ve noticed, Anyone who has lost a loved one should, should [00:07:00] notice is and just embrace and be comfortable with that you’re not at your best. Um, like widow’s Fog is Elliott. It’s very real. And you know, all of us have gone through trauma sometime in our life and. It may not be widows fog at that time, but we, we clearly see that we’re, we’re not thinking the way we normally are.

We’re having a harder time remembering, maybe losing our keys, having a, you know, just again, have maybe having a harder time making decisions. And then you multiply that by, by 10 or a hundred, uh, for someone who’s lost, um, a loved one. And so just recognizing that, um, you’re not at your best and the best thing to do.

And the, the biggest piece of advice I, I say to anyone is to get your team in place because you cannot do this. You need a fantastic, uh, estate planning attorney, [00:08:00] um, ideally working with your current advisor. Although, what’s interesting, Elliott, um, 80% of women whose spouses passed away in the last year move advisors.

And we, we hear from them because they feel like they didn’t feel. By that advisor, they maybe didn’t have that relationship. Um, so I have a fantastic resource guide that, uh, actually lists in there and I’ll, I’ll make sure that I send that to you so you can put it in the show notes, all the questions to ask a financial advisor so that you can make sure that you’re working with someone who’s gonna help you and set you up on, you know, for success.

And also, to be honest, just help you deal with the