Here is a financial event that happens to roughly half of all married couples, is entirely predictable, arrives with no warning letter, and is almost never planned for.
One spouse dies.
The survivor's income drops. Sometimes by a third. And then, in the same year or the one after, their taxes go up.
Less money coming in. More of it going to the IRS. Plus a higher Medicare premium for good measure.
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It is the only event in American personal finance where losing a third of your income raises your tax rate. It has a name, the widow's penalty, and it is entirely preventable if you handle it a decade early.
Nobody sends a warning. Let us go build one.