Tag Archives: Sudden Wealth

Feature 2021

46. How to Plan for a Financial Windfall with Susan Bradley



Receiving a financial windfall, such as winning the lottery, may seem glamorous to those of us who never have. Still, even if half of the news articles or TV shows covering lottery winners are accurate, it may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. 

While winning the lottery is a bit of a rarity, a windfall could include events such as selling a business or receiving a large inheritance. And for the listeners of this podcast, that probably includes your company making it to IPO. And if you’ve been there long enough, maybe you just went from a negative net worth with school loans to a multi-millionaire overnight. But the key point remains the same. If you don’t take time to plan before and after receiving the cash, you run the risk of ending up another statistic, along with those who had it and lost it. 

In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge sits down with  Susan Bradley, Founder and CEO of the Sudden Money Institute, a think tank designed to help recipients of financial windfalls understand how to make smart decisions around their new-found wealth. Malcolm and Susan tackle topics such as  what goes into planning for a sudden financial windfall, as well as the psychology behind the choices people make when they unexpectedly receive  a large amount of money. 

Susan discusses: 

  • How we can prepare ourselves for the inevitable change that come along with life
  • What criteria are considered a financial windfall, and why it’s subjective
  • How her organization trains financial professionals to work with people who have suddenly come into a large amount of money
  • How to find and hire the right team of financial professionals to help guide your financial decisions once you’ve experienced a financial windfall 
  • And more

Resources: 

Connect With Susan Bradley:

Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:

About Our Guest:

Susan is the founder of the Sudden Money® Institute, which began 18 years ago as a community of practice seeking to better serve their financial planning clients by developing processes and tools for the personal side of money and for clients going through transitions. This think tank created the Certified Financial Transitionist® (CeFT®) designation, and a division for training and certification called the Financial Transitionist® Institute. Susan has served on the FPA’s National Board of Directors, she currently sits on the National Football League’s Players Association’s Financial Education Advisory Board, and she serves as the Dean of Transitions for the Council of Deans of the Purposeful Planning Institute. She is seen and heard frequently in the national media, including NBC’s Nightly News, CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. She is the author of Sudden Money: Managing a Financial Windfall (Wiley 2000), and she is also the recipient of the Insiders Forum Iconoclast Award 2017.