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I would advise a definite NO. A person who has lost a loved Will be grieving heavily and the quality of this grief can only be understood a person who has undergone this experience. No amount of explanation will ever be able to convey the excruciating pain a person who has lost undergoes.

When such is the situation, expecting him to make financial decision is akin to asking him or her to commit harakiri. How on earth can a person whose senses are impaired be expected to undertake the calculations necessary for such decisions? That is why it is always somebody else, either a relative of a close friend who takes upon him or her the burden of running the family for a few days, till the affected person is able to get back on his feet.

I speak from experience. I recently lost my mother and because I live more than 300 kilometers away it was my sister and brother who automatically stepped in and decided on all that mattered right from deciding the size, shape and cost of the casket to making arrangements for the funeral service, looking after those who had come from far away to ensure that they did not suffer from lack of food or a place to rest or sleep.

Here in India, this is important. My mother, usually the most practical of people was totally shattered because she had lost her husband with whom she had shared everything for more than five decades. Everything she looked at reminded her of how he related to that. As she is a semi invalid, she had longed to meet God before him because she knew that without him she would be totally helpless as she used a bed pan for all her ablutions. No nurse or helper not ever her own children would be able to show her the concern and love doing this which her husband had done as part of his job of looking after his wife in her old age.

Tell me, in such an impaired situation how can she be expected to take financial decisions? It would led to a financial disaster as she would have needlessly squandered money due to an impaired mind.

Of course, she was back to her usual self a fortnight later, though she felt the emptiness in the house after all those who had come to pay their respects to her dead husband had left.
If she had taken financial decisions it would only have helped those unscrupulous enough to try to make a fast buck from such occasions. So when a person is grieving, never allow him/her to make financial decisions, if you really love them.

Learn more about this author, Tharian Mathew.
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