Sally Brown, an attractive woman in her early 50s, is still recovering emotionally from the death of her husband, Jim.

“He always had health issues. Instead of causing problems, though, those issues really brought us together,” she says. “We really knew we had each other.”

Jim was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 27 and endured cobalt, chemotherapy and other treatments. Throughout the years, he suffered various relapses as well as recurring heart problems. He died during a bypass surgery.

Jim and Sally both were entrepreneurs. Having grown up in the Midwest, Jim was very interested in the cattle business. In fact, he and Sally moved to Montana for a short time so he could become familiar with the Semitol breed of cattle. This particular breed was not well known in the Midwest, and Jim thought it would be very successful there. He was right.

“Jim was very good at what he did, but the cattle business always had its ups and downs,” Sally says.

The couple decided to invest some of their earnings from the cattle business in real estate. They bought two buildings, one of which Sally decided to use as a western clothing store. Fire destroyed the store a few years later, but Jim and Sally rebuilt and used the building as a rental property for several years. Six years ago, they sold the buildings for several times the cost of their initial investment.

Always worried about the vagaries of the cattle business, Sally decided to try her hand at selling baskets for a manufacturer that sold products through parties in individual homes. Sally has been the manufacturer’s top-selling salesperson for the past 17 years.

Sally is financially secure but continues to worry about her ability to take care of herself. “I worry about getting sick and not being able to do my business,” she says.

She also has had to cope with unwinding her husband’s interests. Fortunately, she says, she has been able to get help from Jim’s business partners and associates.

Like many small business owners, Sally uses an attorney/accountant as her primary advisor. She does not receive any financial advice or even estate planning advice from the attorney/accountant. Primarily, she lets her son-in-law give her advice about her investments. Some brokers approached her after Jim’s death, but she didn’t feel comfortable relying on them for advice.

Although Sally knows she is financially secure, she worries about the future. She knows it will be expensive to maintain her country home, and sometimes she thinks about moving.

“I don’t live in a world where I think everything will be perfect, because it won’t be. All that Jim and I went through has made me grow. We were very close, and we were each other’s cheerleader. I miss that, but I will work it out.”

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