But amid that grief, the surviving spouse is often left making high-stakes financial decisions at the worst possible time.

Marital trusts are a common estate-planning tool, but they depend heavily on who controls the money and how closely that ...

At full retirement age, which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, you're entitled to your complete monthly Social ...

Social Security survivors benefits can be an important source of financial stability after your partner passes away.

More than 95% of eligible widowed spouses of veterans opt not to remarry to avoid losing their dependency compensation.

In many instances, spouses execute what is referred to as reciprocal wills. What this means is that each spouse designates the other as the entire beneficiary or the primary beneficiary of their ...

Losing a spouse brings immense emotional weight and, often, unexpected financial decisions. For many surviving spouses, one of the most complicated and confusing tasks is deciding what to do with the ...

When an IRA owner dies, surviving spouses suddenly inherit more than memories. They inherit a stack of decisions wrapped in IRS fine print.

Most debt doesn’t pass directly to heirs, but it doesn’t always disappear either. What happens after death depends on your ...

Losing a spouse can be devastating. But amid that grief, the surviving spouse is often left making high-stakes financial decisions at the worst possible time. Income might drop overnight, yet the ...