Death and Money Make People Funny™: Supporting Clients Facing Mortality

CFP CE Pending

About the Webinar

When a client receives a terminal or life-threatening diagnosis, most financial professionals know exactly what needs to be done. The challenge is that clients often aren’t ready to do it.

A serious diagnosis doesn’t just disrupt a financial plan. It can upend identity, activate grief and trauma, strain family relationships, and fundamentally change the way people process information and make decisions. What appears to be procrastination, indecision, or “non-compliance” may actually be a normal human response to mortality.

Drawing on her unique background as both a CFP® professional and an end-of-life doula, Rose Zealand explores why planning gets stuck, how illness affects financial behavior, and practical ways advisors can communicate more effectively during life’s most difficult transitions. Attendees will leave with immediately applicable strategies for supporting clients with greater empathy, improving follow-through on planning recommendations, recognizing when additional support is needed, and collaborating effectively with death doulas and other members of a client’s care team.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how serious illness, grief, and trauma can influence client decision-making, communication, and financial behavior.
• Recognize common emotional and cognitive barriers that interfere with completion of financial and estate planning recommendations.
• Apply communication strategies that improve client engagement during conversations involving serious illness, incapacity, and end-of-life planning.
• Describe the role of end-of-life doulas and identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration that improve client outcomes.