Coming into Money

An extra $100,000 to play with should be fun, right? (That's why lottery tickets were invented.) It could seed a new business, make a substantial down payment on a beach house, go toward an extra year of easy retirement, pay for a month in Tuscany. But how you get the money turns out to be just as important as how much it is and what you do with it.

Our generation is part of what's expected to be the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. Of course, that money comes with emotional strings: The pleasure of an inheritance can be tempered by grief or guilt. Even if no one died, the thrill of a settlement or severance can be darkened by divorce or job loss. Although plenty of midlife women would know exactly what to do with a windfall, others are stymied. "What often happens is that the person who comes into the wealth is deathly afraid of changing what she's got, or she won't invest it in anything but money markets and CDs," says Micah Porter, a financial planner in Atlanta. "And that won't give her the return she needs."

MORE found three women soon after they got sudden windfalls and asked them to tell their stories. Whether by accident or design, all were doing the right thing: nothing. "You need to let the money sit while you consider your priorities and goals," says Susan Bradley, certified financial planner and founder of the Sudden Money Institute. "Only make essential decisions, like how to pay the taxes." We put them in touch with financial advisers to help them figure out what to do next -- and they ended up with sound advice on dealing with large sums of money.

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