Taking care of those left behind

Ten years later, Bernard M. Kiely still works with three of the 9/11 widows he met after volunteering his services through the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants. The key word with these three women is “trust,” he said. “These people are vulnerable and the sharks are circling,” Mr. Kiely, a fee-only adviser at Kiely Capital Management Inc., told a CPA colleague after the tragedy. The two pulled together some 50 volunteers and aided 160 families for free as part of the chapter's help center for World Trade Center widows. The bereaved received help with their taxes and cash flow management, which was especially important as those who had lost loved ones were eligible for tax forgiveness and sizable refunds in situations where the de-ceased had a high-paying job. Five 9/11 widows and their families worked extensively with Mr. Kiely, and three of them remain clients. In the decade passing, he has watched them grow. In one case, a woman who had been married just nine months lost her husband in the tragedy. The adviser helped her contend with a wrongful-death payment, which had been shared with her deceased husband's parents. Since then, the woman has remarried and made sure to get a prenuptial agreement. Mr. Kiely also structured a pair of trusts for a 9/11 widow who was left behind with two young daughters. “I'm a technician, but I'm a human being — you can't run your life with a calculator,” Mr. Kiely said.”