Before anything else, be sure to double-check and even triple-check your results. Do not mark up your ticket, but carefully check every number on your ticket versus the winning numbers and be sure to check the date of the drawing on your ticket and the date of the winning numbers upon which you are relying. One of your double-checks will be to look at the official lottery website for the numbers and don’t just rely on the first source that clued you in to your big win.   Second, sign the back of your winning ticket in the space provided. In case your ticket is lost or stolen, si ..read more

How can advisors maintain their equilibrium as they help their clients maintain theirs? Susan Bradley offers some processes and guidance that advisors can use with themselves and their clients. Read more on Insider's Forum.. click here Read pages 7 - 10    ..read more

Dear Mega Winner, I don’t know you, but I know your life has changed forever, and you get to determine what that means. You can use this change to shape your life going forward. It will be challenging, confusing and at times complex, all of that can be managed by you to create outcomes you will enjoy for the rest of your life. You can do this, and eventually look back with pride on how you managed your lottery experience from the first week onward. In addition to keeping your winning ticket under lock and key, here are five things you can do to as you absorb the shock of change:   First 4 ..read more

Written by Susan Bradley Susan Bradley, CFP®, CeFT® is the founder of the Sudden Money® Institute, which began 18 years ago as a community of practice seeking to better serve their financial planning clients by developing processes and tools for the personal side of money and for clients going through transitions. This think tank created the Certified Financial Transitionist® (CeFT®) designation, and a division for training and certification called the Financial Transitionist® Institute.   Josh Patrick has spent his adult life running and building businesses. He specializes in working wi ..read more

Written by Mary Martin, PhD   We here at the Financial Transitionist Institute believe that honoring the communication preferences of individual clients is crucial to developing and maintaining good relationships. In fact, Communication Preferences is the first tool we teach in our yearlong program in Financial Transitions Planning. We call it Core Training, and our graduates continuously say it fundamentally alters their client relationships for the better. In Improving client satisfaction with successful communication, Linda York highlights this important part of your work as a financia ..read more

Written by Mary Martin, PhD   I love it when people come to my free, online, 30-minute, self-care sessions and tell me that the reason they’re there is to take a nap. Need to come on, say hi on camera, and then turn the camera off and cry for 30? Or leave it on and cry? Go for it. Don’t want to say anything at all and just need to be alone for a moment? If that, in earnest, is what is called for in that moment, it is welcome.   We are all experiencing our collective grief over the loss of what our world was like at the beginning of 2020, and then there’s anticipatory grief for w ..read more

Written by Mary Martin, PhD   The homepage of Brené Brown’s website has a wonderful quote of hers: “Trust is earned in the smallest of moments. It is earned not through heroic deeds, or even highly visible actions, but through paying attention, listening, and gestures of genuine care and connection.” By now you may have read Vanguard’s new paper, “Assessing the Value of Advice,” and learned that their recent (2018) research shows that “emotional outcomes account for 45% of total perceived value” of financial advice. And within that 45%, trust was found to be the most important factor, fol ..read more

Written by Mary Martin, PhD   In the world of mindfulness, we talk a lot about self-care. There are a lot of things you can do to best position yourself to meet each day as best you can. From good sleep hygiene to eating well to expressing gratitude, science has given us years of research that support what we all know from experience: healthy habits increase well-being and decrease anxiety. It’s time for each of us to make it official, though. It’s time for us to write down the habits we can cultivate to get us through these particularly challenging times. I’m pretty sure I don’t hav ..read more

Written by Mary Martin, PhD   In Why Self-awareness is a Gift, Gregory J. Hahn writes: “Self-awareness is the foundation of emotional intelligence. Paradoxically, self-awareness is a gift we cannot give to someone else. But, an assessment can help to release that gift for us.”   He’s talking about the StrengthsFinder assessment (CliftonStrengths), which I have taken, in addition to probably every other personality inventory, thinking style, and workstyle quiz out there. For all of you Harry Potter fans, I was sorted into Ravenclaw.   Is this really about self-awareness? Here’s ..read more

Written by Mary Martin, PhD   I love it when people come to my free, online, 30-minute, self-care sessions and tell me that the reason they’re there is to take a nap. Need to come on, say hi on camera, and then turn the camera off and cry for 30? Or leave it on and cry? Go for it. Don’t want to say anything at all and just need to be alone for a moment? If that, in earnest, is what is called for in that moment, it is welcome.   We are all experiencing our collective grief over the loss of what our world was like at the beginning of 2020, and then there’s anticipatory grief for w ..read more