When Life Changes, Your Plan Should Adapt
Wealth Planning for Transitions
Most financial plans are built around a version of life that looks tidy on paper. Save, invest, retire. But real life follows its own pattern—and the moments that put the most pressure on a financial plan are rarely the ones you saw coming.
At RWA, we think about these moments as life transitions. Not milestones, which arrive more or less on cue, but the turning points that show up without a script: a marriage ending, a parent’s health declining, receiving an inheritance while you struggle with grief, a career that made sense for 20 years suddenly becoming a poor fit. While these can feel like detours from the plan, they are also some of the most compelling reasons to have one in the first place.
Finding Stability During Upheaval
When a major transition hits, the instinct is to make decisions quickly, to get through it and restore some sense of normalcy. That instinct is understandable but could be costly. Decisions made in the immediate aftermath of a divorce, death or sudden job change are among the most consequential a person will make—and they happen under exactly the conditions least suited to clear thinking: stress, grief and uncertainty.
Getting ahead of that pressure is why it’s useful to take a transition-based approach to planning. Not just a checklist of milestones, but a living plan designed to be adaptable to the scenarios most likely to reshape your financial life—when one of them arrives, the hard thinking is already done.
Major Transitions To Plan For
Caregiving catches most families off guard, even though it shouldn’t. There are roughly 53 million family caregivers in the U.S. today—more than one in four adults over 50 cares for a parent. The emotional toll can be enormous, and it also can impact your finances: reduced hours, interrupted careers, retirement contributions that never get made. The earlier a family has an honest conversation about who will provide care, how it will be funded and what the contingencies are, the more choices they have. Waiting until a health crisis forces the issue can make life far more difficult.
Career transitions are happening at every age and in both directions. Some are chosen, like a pivot into entrepreneurship, a planned early exit, a deliberate step back. Others aren’t—a restructuring, a health issue, an industry that shifts under your feet. Either way, the financial implications can be real: income insecurity, benefits gaps, retirement savings interrupted at the worst possible time. A realistic wealth plan accounts for these possibilities in advance.
Divorce, at any age, restructures financial life in ways that may take years to fully understand. The immediate decisions—how assets are divided, how income is restructured—have long-term compounding effects. For those navigating this later in life, when the timeline for recovery is shorter, getting those decisions right the first time matters even more.
Inheritance and estate transitions are arriving at historic scale. Cerulli Associates estimates $124 trillion will change hands by 2048, and Bank of America Global Research projects that women will ultimately receive roughly 70% of it—largely because they tend to outlive their spouses. But across genders, the rising generation is stepping into stewardship roles they are not always prepared to take on. Understanding what you’re inheriting—the structure, the tax implications, the decisions you’ll need to make—can help you prepare before it’s time to act. And if you know you’re leaving a sizable or complex estate to your heirs, you can put them in a better position by sharing certain details far in advance.
For women, longevity shapes all these transitions in ways that deserve a dedicated conversation. We address this topic in the next story of this issue.
Life’s Inflection Points
These are some of the major transitions to plan for (or at least consider) ahead of time:
Personal Transitions
- Loss of a spouse, parent, or loved one
- Divorce or major relationship change (this one is harder to anticipate, for obvious reasons)
- A medical diagnosis
Family Transitions
- Taking on caregiving responsibilities
- Changes in family roles or dynamics
Financial Transitions
- Selling a business or receiving liquidity
- Significant career shifts or income changes
Structural Transitions
- Inheriting wealth or stepping into a trustee role
- Reassessing goals, priorities, or long-term direction
A Plan Built for These Moments
When life shifts, the most comprehensive plans tend to share a few traits:
- You know where everything is and how it fits together.
- You’re not making decisions in isolation—tax, investment and estate considerations are aligned.
- You have enough flexibility to adjust without starting over.
Just as important, you have a partner to work with you through transitions—someone who understands the technical details of your plan and the bigger picture of your life.
The Role of an Advisory Team
When a client comes to us in the middle of a transition, we don’t hand them a revised portfolio and call it planning. We seek to understand what you’re going through: What feels uncertain? What decisions can’t wait, and which ones should? Who else in the family is affected, and how?
From there, we work to help clients adapt their plans to face change—income arrangements that account for caregiving interruptions, estate documents that reflect current relationships and intentions, succession planning for a business, and more. We work to help close any gaps between the decisions clients need to make and their confidence in making them. That means being direct about financial fluency, family dynamics, and the things that quietly shape decision-making but rarely come up in a standard planning meeting.
The transitions will come. The question is, when they do, will you feel ready—or will you be caught off guard?
If any of the scenarios in this piece sound familiar, we’d welcome the conversation. Please contact your RWA team to catch up or review your plan.
Note: This article was adapted from Planning Through Life Transitions, Not Just Life Stages by Evelyn Pepe, Managing Director, Family Office.
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Longevity Planning for Women
Women and Wealth
Mother’s Day arrives each May and with it comes Women’s Health Month. It’s a timely reminder that women’s longevity is not just a health reality, but a financial one as well. Today, women are living longer than they did in any previous generation. And this is reshaping retirement and how financial plans must support it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. women now have an average life expectancy of 81.4 years. This is nearly five years longer than men. Importantly, and for planning purposes, a woman who reaches age 65 today can expect to live, on average, into her late 80s. A meaningful number of women will live well into their 90s.
Longevity is not an outlier anymore. It’s the baseline.
A longer life is a gift. But it also introduces risks that are too often underestimated. These risks can include:
- Longer retirements
- More years exposed to inflation
- Higher cumulative health care costs
- A greater likelihood of navigating those later years alone
Thoughtful longevity planning is about acknowledging these realities. Then, it’s all about building a plan that reflects them with your trusted advisory team so you don’t have to do it all by yourself.
Rethinking Risk: Longer Time Horizons Change the Equation
One challenge is that taking too little risk with your investments might be as risky as taking too much risk. This is an important consideration when your time horizon could span 30 years or more after retirement.
Longevity changes the math. A portfolio that’s too defensive, too early, may struggle to keep pace with inflation over decades. Market downturns feel immediate. But a greater long-term threat for many women may be purchasing-power erosion over a long retirement.
A longevity-aware investment strategy balances growth and stability. It recognizes that equity exposure may still be appropriate well into retirement. When paired with diversified income sources and liquidity planning, it may help reduce the need to sell investments during volatile periods. The goal is to take the right kind of risk, aligned with a realistic timeline.
Social Security: Especially Critical for Women
Social Security plays an outsized role in retirement security for women. That’s because it’s one of the few income sources that lasts for life and adjusts for inflation. Women make up nearly two‑thirds of Social Security beneficiaries over age 85, largely because they live longer and are more likely to survive a spouse.
This makes claiming decisions particularly consequential. For many women, delaying benefits can serve as a form of longevity insurance, locking in a higher guaranteed income stream for life. Survivor benefits, spousal benefits, and the long‑term impact of caregiving or career interruptions all factor into this decision.
Planning here is all about coordinating Social Security benefits with portfolio withdrawals, tax strategy and cash flow needs to help create durability across decades.
Planning for the Probability of Independence
Longevity also increases the likelihood of spending at least part of later life on your own. Roughly 80% of women will age alone, whether due to widowhood, divorce or never having married. This reality influences everything from housing decisions to liquidity needs and estate planning.
A strong financial plan anticipates independence rather than reacting to it. That means stress‑testing cash flow for single‑income scenarios, ensuring powers of attorney and health care directives are up to date, and building flexibility into housing plans. It also means preparing for the emotional and logistical dimensions of financial decision‑making later in life.
The Caregiving Factor and Its Financial Ripple Effects
Women are far more likely to step into caregiving roles, often during peak earning years. Research from the Department of Labor shows that caregiving responsibilities reduce lifetime earnings and, in turn, Social Security and retirement plan benefits. Over time, that hidden cost compounds.
Longevity planning needs to account for this possibility early. That may mean adjusting savings targets, prioritizing your own long-term security even while supporting others, and planning for long-term care needs. Caregiving is an act of generosity. A good plan helps facilitate your future independence.
Planning With Intention
Longevity planning is about designing a financial life that helps support health, autonomy and purpose for as long as possible. This perspective is at the heart of Wealth With Intention, RWA’s initiative focusing on helping women and rising generations navigate wealth with clarity and confidence.
Women’s Health Month is an opportunity to broaden how we define well-being to include financial health as part of that picture. A plan that reflects longer life expectancy, different career arcs and unique risks can be a source of steadiness across life’s transitions.
If longevity planning is something you haven’t revisited recently, or if your life circumstances have changed, your RWA advisory team is here to help you think it through. A longer life deserves a plan built to support it—fully and intentionally.
Preparing Your Loved Ones for College
Covering Costs, Managing Risks and Providing a Safety Net
It’s the season of airborne mortarboards and flashing tassels as high school seniors fling their caps at graduation. For parents, guardians and grandparents of college-bound students, this is a time of celebration, but it can also trigger stress as your loved ones start this next chapter of their lives. We’ve gathered the following list of documents, questions and actions to help you prepare as you get closer to dropping off your student this fall.
Financial Considerations
Let’s start with one of the biggest concerns—how will you pay for college?
Make sure you fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. This lets you explore eligibility for both need- and non-need-based programs provided by the federal government. For institution- or state-based financial aid, students may need to fill out a College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile as well. Even students from high-net-worth families may be eligible for merit scholarships. Your RWA Wealth Partners team can help you assess any offers of aid and create a payment plan to cover the cost of college.
Here are some questions to consider.
Does your student qualify for financial aid?
- Colleges are required to have a net price calculator tool available for a preliminary estimate of the cost to attend. They must also provide information about grant programs available.
- Need-based programs include Pell Grants and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), among others.
- Other federal loans include direct subsidized loans (which in effect offer lower interest rates to those who qualify), unsubsidized loans, parent loans for undergraduate students (PLUS) and direct consolidation loans.
- Merit-based scholarships can help reduce the cost of college. Eligibility is based on academic achievement, athletics, career track, community, ethnicity, interests and more.
Did you know some schools may match scholarships?
- If your student is offered an aid package from one school, another may match it—call or email the admissions office to inquire. You should be prepared to share copies of the financial aid packages offered by other schools and to complete a CSS Profile or a separate aid application with the institution. Do this as soon as possible, as rewards are given on a first-come, first-served basis.
Are you aware of the 529 plan distribution rules for paying tuition?
- The IRS does not treat tuition paid directly to the school by parents or grandparents as a taxable gift, and it won’t count against your annual or lifetime exemptions. Note that room and board do not qualify for this tax treatment.
- Qualified 529 plan distributions are tax-free. You can use them for tuition, room and board, books and supplies, and to pay off up to $10,000 of lifetime student loans.
- 529 plan funds can be used to pay for off-campus housing up to the amount of on-campus room and board costs. Schools publish this cost information, so use that as the basis for how much you can withdraw safely.
- 529 plan withdrawals do not need to be paid directly to the college; you can take the distribution and then pay for qualified expenses. This can be helpful when paying for off-campus housing or room and board.
- Form 1098-T, issued by the school, reports tuition and related fees eligible for education tax credits (but not room and board, so keep records of those payments separately).
- Form 1099-Q reports distributions from the plan.
- If your student is eligible for low-interest subsidized loans, consider using those first and then paying them off later with 529 plan funds to maximize tax-free growth within the plan.
Can you claim deductions or tax credits for tuition or student loan interest? Here are some items to consider when preparing your tax return (speak to your tax preparer about these, as there are income thresholds).
- Student loan interest deduction
- American Opportunity Tax Credit
- Lifetime Learning Credit
- State-level tuition deductions
Estate Planning
Yes, even your child needs a basic estate plan as they leave for college and step into adulthood. Managing risk is one of the most important and difficult parts of parenting. To help you take care of your child if they experience an accident or financial difficulty, consider creating these documents before they leave home:
- A health care power of attorney with medical directives. If your child is incapacitated after reaching the age of majority (18 in most states), health care providers cannot legally share medical information or consult with you. This document makes sure you can be fully involved in the event of a medical emergency and can coordinate care.
- A HIPAA waiver. This will permit sharing health information with you and other providers.
- A financial power of attorney. This will give you access to your child’s accounts and will allow you to make financial decisions on their behalf as needed.
- A will. Even with small accounts or limited personal possessions, this is worth creating, especially if you’re already drawing up the other documents on this list.
- A Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) waiver. This will allow you to independently see your child’s grades.
Insurance Coverage
Protect what’s valuable while your child is away: health and property.
What are your health insurance options?
- Students under the age of 26 can stay on their parents’ or guardians’ health insurance plans.
- Universities may offer competitive health insurance coverage (make sure your student waives the coverage each year if they’re covered under your plan).
- Students can also purchase coverage on the health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act in the state where they will attend school.
Does your student need property insurance on campus?
- Your homeowners policy may cover personal items your student keeps in their dormitory.
- Your policy may also provide identity theft coverage on campus.
- Confirm with your insurance company to be sure.
What if they live off campus?
- Consider renters insurance to cover property, liability and identity theft. The policy typically must be in the student’s name, even if you’re paying for it (make yourself an “interested party” on the policy).
- To help ensure a successful property or liability claim, have a detailed inventory of valuable items that includes a picture and the cost of each.
- Ask your insurance company if your umbrella liability policy covers your student while at school.
Financial Education, Savings and Responsibility
It’s never too early to teach your child about saving for the future and to help them form smart habits. You can enlist the help of your advisor.
Have you discussed savings plans?
- If your child has a summer job or paid internship, you (or they) can contribute to an IRA in their name in 2026. You can contribute up to their taxable compensation for the year or $7,500, whichever is less—contributing more than they earn will incur tax penalties.
Have you spoken to your child about credit cards and the risks they pose to financial health?
- Set clear usage guidelines—when, why, where.
- Make sure your child understands interest rates, limits, budgeting, fees and any other features the card has (airline miles, rewards, etc.).
- Ensure that lost or stolen cards can be frozen quickly.
Studying Abroad
Getting a student ready to study in another country has many parallels to sending them off to their first year of school.
What insurance does your child need beyond U.S.-based health insurance?
- Research international medical plans for the country, including psychological care.
- Look into medical and evacuation insurance in the event of an accident or natural disaster.
- Assess travel insurance to cover trip cancellations, lost or damaged baggage, and delays.
- Consider kidnap and ransom insurance if your child is traveling to high-risk areas.
Have you considered the financial implications of studying in a foreign country?
- Understand preferred payment methods in the host country, both at the school and in the surrounding area.
- Find out if credit cards are widely accepted or if the country has a cash economy.
- ATM passcodes in some foreign countries are limited to four digits; consider changing the PIN on cards to match this standard for the duration of the trip.
- Invest in a money belt or other method to conceal cash if necessary.
Support and Advice on Call
After reading through the list above, we hope you feel empowered to create a smooth transition for your college student (and yourself). If you have questions or don’t know where to start, please contact your RWA advisory team—we are here to support you and your family.
The information set forth in this communication is presented by RWA Wealth Partners, LLC (“RWA”). The contents are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended as investment, legal or tax advice. Please consult with your investment, legal or tax advisor concerning any specific questions you may have. Past results are not indicative of future performance. The historical return of markets generally and of individual asset classes or individual securities may not be an accurate predictor of future returns of those markets, asset classes or individual securities. RWA does not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of any sourced data in this communication.
The information set forth in this communication is presented by RWA Wealth Partners, LLC (“RWA Wealth Partners”). The contents are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended as investment, legal or tax advice. Please consult with your investment, legal or tax advisor concerning any specific questions you may have. Past results are not indicative of future performance. The historical return of markets generally and of individual asset classes or individual securities may not be an accurate predictor of future returns of those markets, asset classes or individual securities. RWA Wealth Partners does not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of any sourced data in this communication.
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