Lyn A. Dippel interviewed by Tim Grant for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Losing a spouse brings with it a host of issues, not the least of which is how the surviving spouse will support himself or herself financially. Elderly widows, in particular, have a higher likelihood of facing poverty as they struggle with grief.

After 15 years in their second marriage, the husband was preparing to retire with $1 million in his IRA, and the wife, who had been a stay-at-home mom, was shocked to learn she had no ownership rights to the account. "She was devastated," said Lyn Dippel, a lawyer and financial planner at Financial Advantage in Baltimore. "She had raised the kids all this time and had no money to leave her two kids from a former marriage.