Divorce changes your entire financial picture: income, assets, taxes, retirement accounts, everything. The most important thing you can do right now is understand what you actually have before any agreements are signed. That means a full inventory of every account, every asset, every liability. From there, you need a strategy built around your life after the divorce, not your life during it. We work with women going through this transition to make sure the decisions made now don’t limit what’s possible later.

This is more common than you’d think, and more overwhelming than most people expect. An inheritance often arrives at the same time as grief, which makes clear financial thinking genuinely hard. The first rule: don’t make any major investment decisions for at least 90 days if you can help it. Park the money somewhere safe and liquid while you get oriented. When you’re ready, work with an advisor who will explain every option in plain language and let you make the decisions. That’s how we work. No pressure, no product pitches, just clarity.

This is one of the most important questions you can ask. The answer depends on whether your advisor is a fiduciary. A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest at all times, not just when it’s convenient. Many advisors at large brokerage firms are not fiduciaries. They operate under a lower standard called suitability, which only requires that an investment be appropriate at the time of sale, not necessarily the best choice for you. AQS is a registered investment adviser with a fiduciary duty to every client. That distinction matters, especially when you’re making decisions that will affect the rest of your life.

Start by understanding what you have. That sounds simple, but most people including very capable, intelligent women have never seen the full picture of their financial life in one place. Every account. Every investment. Every insurance policy. Once you can see everything clearly, the decisions get much easier. You don’t need to become a financial expert. You need a guide who will explain things clearly, answer every question without making you feel foolish for asking, and build a strategy around where you actually are, not where someone assumes you should be.

Inherited retirement accounts come with specific rules, and the decisions you make in the first few months can have significant tax consequences. As a surviving spouse, you generally have more flexibility than other beneficiaries. You can roll the account into your own IRA, which allows you to defer withdrawals longer. But the right move depends on your age, your income, and your overall financial picture. This is not a decision to make based on a Google search. It is one of the first things we walk through with every widow we work with, clearly, patiently, and with no pressure to act before you’re ready.

The honest answer is that most advisors are not trained for this. They are trained to manage portfolios. What you need at a major life transition is someone who can do both: manage a serious investment strategy and understand that you are making these decisions in the middle of real life. When evaluating an advisor, ask them directly: Have you worked with women in my situation before? How do you handle clients who are new to managing their own finances? What does the first few months look like? The answers will tell you everything. We are happy to have that conversation with you, with no obligation on either side.

Yes, and in fact, that is right at the level where having a serious investment strategy starts to make a significant difference. At $250,000 and above, you have access to investment approaches that simply are not available through a standard brokerage account or target date fund. At AQS, our minimum is $250,000 at the client level, which puts institutional-grade strategies within reach for the people who actually need them. If you are not quite there yet but expect to be through an inheritance, a settlement, a business sale, or a retirement rollover, we are still happy to talk. Knowing what is coming helps you prepare for it.