I’m getting married in October, and we’ve been talking about all those things we’ll have to work out - making wills, living wills, getting a combined bank account (we’re planning on doing the “joint account for household bills and separate accounts for us” thing), putting him on the mortgage, etc.
We live together, and some of this stuff would be convenient to do now. The bank accounts, for example, and we’ll be going overseas for our honeymoon and so the wills would be a good idea to do beforehand.
Are there any drawbacks to doing this stuff now? Legally, in terms of the wills especially? I plan on changing my name, I think - will that be a big pain in the butt? (We live in South Carolina, if it matters.) Is any of this stuff just a lot easier to do as a married couple, like maybe the mortgage? (I keep meaning to refinance, too, and just haven’t gotten around to it.)
I see no reason not to do the standard and living wills now. In fact, if you already have either, I think you would definitely want them updated by this point. Likewise establishing the joint checking account. (The paranoid and untrusting part of me wants to suggest that said account be in a different bank than either of you use for your individual accounts, but that’s probably just me being nuts. Ignore me.)
From my time as a bank CSR, by the way, I suggest that you may also wish to both fill out power of attorney forms for your individual accounts, each granting the other access to the account. When I was in banking, I had a customer whom I could not legally grant access to her hubby’s account because he was in a coma and she wasn’t on the account in any way, even though I not only believed her story but had verification of the coma thing from an outside source.
Do either of you currently have a will? if so, it might be automatically voided when you get married, leaving you intestate. in many jurisdictions, a pre-marriage will is voided upon marriage, unless it’s specifically made in anticipation of marriage.
don’t know if that is the case in South Carolina, and this post isn’t meant as legal advice - simply to alert you to that possibility. for good answers to your questions, you should consult a lawyer who knows about the law of wills & estates in South Carolina.
Will / Power of attorney: you could do at pretty much any time and it does no harm to do that sooner rather than later. Make sure that any mention of the fiance in the will is phrased correctly (“to my fiance / husband, John Q. Doe”) vs (“To my husband, John Doe”), as the latter might give the other potential heirs to your fortune ammo in contesting the will. Or so I read in a novel once :D.
The one thing with making the will beforehand, though, is that some things can be handled one way with a spouse and not with a non-spouse - something about a spouse being able to basically inherit all your assets without tripping inheritance tax concerns, while a non-spouse cannot. Unless you really do have a fortune, I suspect your estate wouldn’t be enough to trigger inheritance taxes anyway, but it’s a consideration.
Anyway, if you did do a will now, there might be things you’d need to revise afterward.
The house: I don’t know that I’d put him on the deed etc. until you’re actually married. I mean, god forbid anything should happen to your couplehood, but if it did, that’s a huge hassle to sort out, he could theoretically force the sale of the house without your consent, etc. And refinancing (which I agree you should depending on your rates etc.): the mortgage company might be unwilling to put him on the mortgage unless he’s listed on the deed.
In some states like Nevada and California, as a rule, with exceptions of course, the combined stuff belongs to both parties. If you want to get half of her value there might be good reason for postponing the financial details. Of course if she is worth anything worth bothering with she already knows that and has made some provisions to protect herself from you.
