After-loss services can help bereaved clients cope — and advisory firms grow

Financial planners spend a significant portion of their time helping clients navigate life events, from saving for a home to mapping out plans for eventual retirement. But the life events we plan for don't stop at retirement — and really, they don't even stop at death. 

When a person passes away, there's almost always an estate left behind for a loved one to manage. It is an exhausting, time-consuming process, one in which the loved one encounters roadblocks and hurdles they've never before experienced. This is where after-loss services professionals come in.

I found my way into the after-loss services industry after my husband died of cancer at age 34. Now, not only was I suddenly a grieving, single mother of a young daughter and working a full-time job, but I was also an executor. 

At that time, the after-loss industry didn't exist. I started my first business to provide the solutions I wished I'd had access to when I was navigating the realities of my husband's passing. Several years later, I connected with two of my peers, and together we formed Professionals of After Loss Services — PALS — to professionalize the new industry, creating best practices, a code of ethics and a certification course.

Losing a spouse, parent or other loved one comes with unique challenges that most people can't even imagine until they're in the throes of estate administration. A hundred small and large decisions pile up, and we find that grief can affect the executive functioning of even the most capable people. 

After-loss professionals help grieving clients put one foot in front of the other and wade through to-do lists that may range from navigating benefits information to helping elderly clients unfamiliar or uncomfortable with technology close online accounts. Helping with things that seem small to us can go a long way in making surviving loved ones' lives easier.

Referral or in-house services

One way a financial advisor can connect a client, or their loved one, to such services is by referring them to an after-loss professional. In this way, financial planners can preserve their focus on investment decisions and long-term planning while an individual with specialized resources is available to the client during this crucial period.

Alternatively, an advisory firm may provide after-loss services in-house. In this scenario, a designated employee would likely meet with the client to determine the tasks they are facing and then use the information to create a customized plan and walk the client through the tasks in order of priority, following up over the next months to a year to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. 

Some of those tasks could include sending death certificates; notifying credit bureaus; closing or changing the name on utilities or other accounts; updating deeds or titles (sometimes in preparation for a sale); canceling subscriptions or recurring donations; and recommending other professionals such as accountants, attorneys, professional organizers or therapists that specialize in grief. Our training program spends a considerable amount of time discussing different case studies and scenarios in order to familiarize trainees with the kinds of situations they may be faced with as they guide their client through the process of estate administration.

How after-loss services can grow your firm

Whether via referral or in-house, after-loss services offer significant benefits to clients and their surviving loved ones. But advisory firms can expect tangible benefits as well.

Enhanced client engagement and retention. Financial planners often lose clients upon a death event. Having predetermined processes in place to help guide surviving family members through estate administration upon a loss can demonstrate a firm's care, consideration and professionalism to new decision-makers.

Firm differentiation and new marketing avenues. Since it's a relatively new industry, after-loss services allow advisory firms to uniquely position themselves to prospective clients.

Additional, predictable workflows. This is especially valuable for firms that have a key team member, like an office manager, who holds valuable knowledge of, and relationships with, your clients. Supporting clients with after-loss services can be systematized and offers a fulfilling and critical job function.

Financial planning is by its nature a deeply personal and relationship-driven industry, one that requires an understanding of not only clients' financial goals, but of their hopes and dreams — not only for themselves but for those they will leave behind. After-loss services enable advisors to extend their care not only to their clients but to the clients' loved ones. We believe that the more people learn about and experience the benefits of being supported by after-loss professionals, the more they'll search for — and eventually come to expect — this service from financial advisory firms.