Sudden Money & Aequus: Helping You Plan for Life’s Transitions

What do all of the following events have in common?

• Windfall
• Insurance settlement
• Retirement
• Sudden loss
• Change in health
• Inheritance
• Major career change
• Pro sports contract
• Marriage
• Loss of a spouse
• Sale of a business
• Divorce

    All of the above are life transition events. Each begins with an ending of sorts (of a marriage, a financial state, a career, or even a life), ends with a new normal. In between is what we call Passage: the transition from what was to what will be.
    When life is changing, many people seek professional advice. They go to attorneys, accountants, financial planners and therapists, all of whom have clear protocols for dealing with clients. But if you don’t understand the experience you’re having, and the professional you have enlisted already has a protocol, you can be mismatched.
    The change that is occurring in a person’s life should drive a shift in how a professional guides that person. Unfortunately, both financial advisors and the people who hire them have historically underestimated what’s going on in the case of people going through transition. They need different tools and protocols. They need their own planning model.
  The Sudden Money® Institute (SMI) is the first organization of professionals to synthesize decades of experience in financial planning with cutting-edge research in neurology, sociology and psychology. SMI has developed a process that transcends those fields of study by integrating their technical aspects with the human experiences of the person in transition.
The organization’s experts are trained in the art and science of transition and the optimal way to guide their clients through turbulent and transformative times.
    The best time to start financial transitions planning is when a life event first occurs or is first identified. Waiting until ‘things calm down’ may feel intuitive, but a wide range of regrettable decisions may be made and some may be impossible to unwind. This is a time to minimize and manage the confusion and challenges around change and transition. It’s the time to create a safe space and make one good decision at a time.  By Susan Bradley, CFP®, founder of the Sudden Money Institute

Cicily Maton and Michelle Maton are Chicago’s only certified Sudden Money Advisors, and are specialists in the areas of life-planning and life transitions planning. If you or a family member are going through a life transition event, call the Aequus Team at 312-664-4090.