Don’t turn over all financial responsibilities to your spouse
On behalf of Johnson, Sclafani & Moriarty, Attorneys at Law posted in High Asset Divorce on Thursday, July 13, 2017.
One of the advantages of marriage is that you can share the everyday responsibilities of life with your spouse. For people who don’t enjoy balancing a checkbook or dealing with their investment portfolio, turning those responsibilities over to their spouse may feel like a relief.
However, it can also be detrimental to your financial future. If you find yourself single again, whether through divorce or death, not knowing the details of your assets and debts can leave you at a disadvantage.
As one financial planner, who’s also a psychologist, says, “Taking an extreme position around money management in a relationship — such as taking all of the responsibility or none of it — is a recipe for relational and financial disaster.”
Even dividing up the financial responsibilities can be dangerous. Perhaps you opt to handle the everyday household expenses and budget while your spouse has responsibility for your investments, retirement savings and other long-term financial goals. As one certified divorce financial analyst puts it, the spouses are “both dealing with money and finances, but they both get a very different (and incomplete) view of things.”
If you do divide up the financial responsibilities, the financial analyst recommends having a regularly-scheduled “money date” to update each other and determine where you can do better. Of course, complete honesty and transparency is necessary.
Too many people find out the hard way during divorce that their spouse has been hiding assets or debts or not providing them with a complete and accurate picture of their finances. It can take time, money and professional expertise to determine exactly what funds you may be entitled to. The more you know up front, the easier it will be for you and your attorney to seek a division of property that will be fair to you.
Source: USA Today, “Think twice before giving up financial control at the altar,” Elizabeth Renter, NerdWallet, July 09, 2017
