An excerpt:

Vance Barse is the founder of Your Dedicated Fiduciary, an investment advisor firm based in San Diego, Calif., that has made centering women a bedrock of its practice: two-thirds of its clients are female-headed households.

In a conversation with Barron’s Penta, Barse says that if women aren’t part of the financial-planning conversation already, they should be. And if they lose their spouse before that can happen, they should be deliberate, not hasty, in finding a trusted advisor.

No one wants to think about losing a spouse, but it will happen at some point—and as all the statistics show, it’s far more likely for a woman to outlive her male partner. That’s why Barse tries to center female-headed households in his business model, but also why it’s wise for couples to make sure the wife has a say in the family finances before she’s all alone.

See Future Returns: Why Women Need to Participate in Financial Planning in Barron’s Penta.