Recognize How Grief Can Change the Meaning of Familiar Expressions
Understand why beliefs, religious communities, and familiar expressions of comfort may feel supportive, complicated, painful, or different after the death of a spouse or partner.
Avoid Assumptions That Can Distance Widowed Clients
Recognize when comments such as “They’re in a better place” may introduce meaning the client does not share, limit disclosure, or leave the client feeling misunderstood.
Respond with Greater Confidence and Care
Use research-informed communication strategies to acknowledge faith, doubt, nonbelief, continuing bonds, and traditions without interpreting the client’s experience or moving beyond the financial planner’s professional role.
About the course
Bring greater confidence and understanding to conversations where beliefs, traditions, and loss become part of the financial picture. For some widowed people, faith is a source of comfort. For others, beliefs that once felt certain become unsettled, or familiar traditions no longer fit. People who do not hold religious beliefs may encounter expectations that overlook their experience. These experiences can reach into family relationships, community connections, and decisions about the future. This course explores the varied ways belief and meaning can be part of widowhood, including continuing connections to the person who died and changes in religious or cultural traditions. Lived experiences and financial planning applications bring these topics into focus, offering context for conversations about values, priorities, and the decisions that matter to a widowed client. Developed by Soaring Spirits International (SSI), a global peer support network for widowed people, this course brings together research and the lived experiences of widowed people. Founded in 2008, SSI has connected with more than four million widowed people worldwide. That experience informs the practical understanding and resources shared throughout this training. This course is open to anyone interested in supporting widowed people in a professional or community setting. CFP® professionals can earn 1 hour of continuing education credit by completing the course requirements.
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Michele Neff Hernandez
This training has been shaped by many voices and many years of learning. While I wrote the content, it reflects the insight of a dedicated team of professionals and the decades of quantitative and qualitative research gathered through the Soaring Spirits community. My role in this work has been to bring those insights together in a practical way. With a background in teaching and training, and years spent listening to widowed people share their lived experiences, my hope has been to translate what we have learned into tools that professionals can actually use. This work is deeply personal to me, and it is guided by a genuine love and respect for widowed people and the remarkable resilience they show as they rebuild their lives. It is my sincere hope that what you learn here will help you feel more confident and thoughtful in the ways you respond to widowed people. The understanding and skills you develop here can serve you in many areas of your life, offering opportunities to respond with greater compassion whenever someone around you is facing one of life’s most difficult moments.
Curriculum
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0.1 Course Overview and Welcome
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0.2 Start Here: Belief-Sensitive Communication with Widowed Clients
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0.3 Learner Acknowledgement
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1.1 REVIEW: Responding When Faith, Meaning, or Tradition Enters the Conversation
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1.2 Why Familiar Comfort Can Cost You Information
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1.3 Responding to Statements about Faith or Spirituality by the Client
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1.4 Professional Application: When Shared Faith Does Not Mean Shared Experience
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1.5 Professional Application Debrief: When Shared Faith Does Not Mean Shared Experience
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2.1 REVIEW: Responding When the Planner's Assumptions About Faith Do Not Reflect the Client's Experience
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2.2 When Identity, Participation, Belief, and Comfort Do Not Line Up
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2.3 Meaning, Connection, and Tradition Without Certainty
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2.4 Professional Application 2: When Participation and Belief Do Not Line Up Neatly
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2.5 Professional Application Debrief: When Participation and Belief Do Not Line Up Neatly
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3.1 REVIEW: Communication About Faith and Spirituality That Preserves Trust
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3.2 Accuracy With Humanity
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3.3 Clarify, Return, and Repair Without Taking Over the Conversation
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3.4 Professional Application 3: When a Familiar Reassurance Misses the Client’s Meaning
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3.5 Professional Application Debrief: When a Familiar Reassurance Misses the Client’s Meaning
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Practice Exam
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Final Certification Exam
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Course Completion and Certificate
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What people are saying
Hear from professionals who have used Soaring Spirits International’s training and resources to support widowed people in their work.
I LOVE this program!!!!! I sent 5 packages out the day I got them and I received a very nice thank you card from one of my widowed customers. We have always sent a sympathy card and offered to have them come in when they are ready for a review and are welcome to bring someone with them, but this just adds so much more showing that we DO care!
Insurance Agent
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The training was unique and extremely helpful because it explains the right things to say and do when providing professional services to someone who has recently been widowed. The information provided was heartfelt and came directly from widowed persons and SSI, which to me is invaluable because it is coming from a credible source.
Personal Injury Attorney, Yochelson & Associates
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If you are searching for quality education on how to be a better resource for the widowed community…look no further. This program hits all the right areas of empathy, compassion, and understanding when it comes to working with the widowed community.
MBA Prepared Retirement Institute
In 37 years as an agent with a large, aging book of business, I've seen how often clients face loss. This training gives my team and me the awareness and language to show up in a way that truly matters. I hope never to learn widowhood firsthand, but this program equips us to support those who are living it with far more empathy, confidence and care.
Insurance Agent
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Even after decades in the insurance industry, I’ve always wondered if I was saying the right thing to grieving people. This training fills a gap professionals are rarely taught, offering practical guidance for showing up with clarity and compassion when someone is grieving. I’ll use this at work, but just as importantly, I feel more prepared to support friends and family, too. This is one of those rare trainings that applies not only to business, but to life.
Nind Insurance Agency
Extremely valuable information for anyone, but especially those in the Life Insurance business! It’s great to know we have Soaring Spirits International as a reliable and informative resource!”
JFish Insurance
I LOVE this program!!!!! I sent 5 packages out the day I got them and I received a very nice thank you card from one of my widowed customers. We have always sent a sympathy card and offered to have them come in when they are ready for a review and are welcome to bring someone with them, but this just adds so much more showing that we DO care!
Insurance Agent
If you are searching for quality education on how to be a better resource for the widowed community…look no further. This program hits all the right areas of empathy, compassion, and understanding when it comes to working with the widowed community.
MBA Prepared Retirement Institute
Even after decades in the insurance industry, I’ve always wondered if I was saying the right thing to grieving people. This training fills a gap professionals are rarely taught, offering practical guidance for showing up with clarity and compassion when someone is grieving. I’ll use this at work, but just as importantly, I feel more prepared to support friends and family, too. This is one of those rare trainings that applies not only to business, but to life.
Nind Insurance Agency
The training was unique and extremely helpful because it explains the right things to say and do when providing professional services to someone who has recently been widowed. The information provided was heartfelt and came directly from widowed persons and SSI, which to me is invaluable because it is coming from a credible source.
Personal Injury Attorney, Yochelson & Associates
In 37 years as an agent with a large, aging book of business, I've seen how often clients face loss. This training gives my team and me the awareness and language to show up in a way that truly matters. I hope never to learn widowhood firsthand, but this program equips us to support those who are living it with far more empathy, confidence and care.
Insurance Agent
Extremely valuable information for anyone, but especially those in the Life Insurance business! It’s great to know we have Soaring Spirits International as a reliable and informative resource!”
JFish Insurance
Ready to Strengthen Trust with Widowed Clients?
Build practical skills for responding when faith, beliefs, and meaning enter financial planning conversations. Learn at your own pace while keeping your clients’ values and priorities at the center.