Questions regarding post-wedding paperwork

Factual Questions
1

I’m in the throes of wedding planning (occuring on March 8th), and things are getting settled enough for me to start considering the stuff we’re going to have to do afterwards. I thought I’d list the stuff that I’ve come up with, and let the Teeming Millions suggest anything I’ve forgotten, and maybe clear up some questions I’ve got for what I have thought of.

  1. Name change. She’ll be taking my name, and we’re pretty clear on the paperwork required for that. How long does that take to take effect? Is it effectively immediate after filing the paperwork, or is there

  2. Identification. Tied into #1, I’m assuming that she’ll need to get a new drivers license with her new name. Or does she? Would her current one still be valid, and just change the name the next time she renews? We’re in Colorado (since this might vary state-to-state).

And what about passports? For our honeymoon, we’ll be doing an Alaska cruise, and they require that passengers have a passport. The cruise won’t be until the end of May. She doesn’t currently have a passport, and we’re trying to figure out whether it’d be better to wait until her name change is taken care to get her one, or get one now (with her current name) and take that. If we do the second option, what (if any) other paperwork would be required to synch up her new legal name with a passport showing her current one?

  1. Financial accounts. We’ll be consolidating our checking and savings into joint accounts, which is pretty straightforward. What about retirement accounts (we each have a 401k, and I’ve got an IRA)? I’m assuming that those are still owned by us as individuals (although we will be setting each other as our beneficiaries), but I wanted to double-check.

  2. House. Currently, the title is solely in my name. She moved in with me when I bought it, but at the time we weren’t quite ready to tie ourselves together that much. I’m going to be putting her name on the title. I’m assuming this would involve contacting both the county clerk (since that’s who keeps the records) and my mortgage company.

  3. Insurance policies. We’ll be putting each other as the primary beneficiary on our various policies.

  4. Work benefits. After looking things over, it looks like my employer provides a better medical package. It’s a larger company, so the various credits and co-pays are more favorable than her employer’s.

  5. Taxes. We’ll be doing new W-4s to mark our “married” status. We’ll also be doing a “what-if” scenario with this year’s taxes to see how much of a difference filing jointly would have vs. filing individually. Depending on the outcome of that, we’ll may also tweak our tax witholdings. I believe (and she agrees) that if at all possible, it’s better to keep the tax witholdings close to the actual tax payment. Getting a big refund just means you gave the IRS an interest free loan over the year, and owing a lot of money come April 15th can cause extra fees to be incurred. We’ve got a prety simple tax setup: salaried jobs for both, mortgage deduction, savings interest, and that’s about it.
    So, is there anything I forgot? Any potential “gotchas” for the stuff I did remember?

2

Check with an accountant with regards to #7. My wife and I still file as single.
More tax is taken out and helps offset the so-called marriage penalty.

3

After I got married, the first thing I did was update my social security records. Then I went to the DMV to update my license. But basically, most places that I changed my name with just used a copy of the marriage license as their “proof.” So you don’t necessarily have to have a new drivers license in order to do stuff like change names on bank accounts, etc.

On the health insurance tip, I believe you have something like 90 days after the wedding to change your plan information, otherwise you have to wait for open enrollment. So don’t dilly dally on that one. I found that one out the hard way, and had to keep my own insurance until open enrollment instead of dropping it and using the US Military’s coverage.

4

Our bank required TWO forms of ID (driver’s license and credit card) when I added my soon-to-be-husband to my bank account. After we were married and I changed my name, I had to bring in my marriage license (and maybe my new driver’s license, I can’t remember anymore) before they would change my name on the account.

For her DL, it stays valid, but if she plans to use it as ID and it needs to match any other accounts, they need to match what’s on the DL. I found it was best to change everything or nothing.

I’m not sure about the passport, but it may need to match whatever’s on the DL. You should check with whoever it is that issues passports and ask them what to do. Do it soon because passports are taking a long time to get processed these days.

5

Different stuff happens on different timescales. IIRC, the first thing you need to do is to get your marriage license, then go to your local Social Security office to get your name changed on that. After you do that, you get your driver’s license changed.

In California, I had to get a new driver’s license. I didn’t have to take a driving or written test, though. I’ve blocked out some of it from my memory, but I do remember taking my marriage license and new Social Security card to the DMV.

After you do this, you change her name with credit cards, bill payments, frequent flier programs, and the like. You will need to send them copies of your marriage license to do this in a lot of cases. You can do this sort of thing pretty much whenever- I’ve never found a problem with bills when the name on the check didn’t match the name on the account; they only seem to care if the check is good. You may want to do credit cards when you do your driver’s license- I don’t recall that process being particularly onerous, and sometimes they do check your ID when you’re paying by credit card.

Oooooh, I’m really not sure on this one.

If you need a passport on that little notice, you will have to pay for it to be rushed. I think it’s around $60 more than normal.

On the other hand, she will most likely have this passport for the next 10 years. If you change your name after you get your passport (as I did), they don’t issue you a new passport- they just put an amendment on one of the back pages of yours. I have gotten very used to saying, as slowly and clearly as I can, “There is an amendment on page XX of my passport”. I think it gets extra scrutiny because my name on the passport doesn’t match the name on my tickets.

If it were me, I’d get the passport after the name change. But your finances may be such that $60 is a much bigger deal to you than to me, and you may not be planning much foreign travel together, in which case it might not be worth it.

Make sure your travel agent and the cruise ship do know that Alaska is part of the US… :wink:

6

On the health insurance, the limit is usually 30 days to add a new spouse, not 90, so do that ASAP.

She may find herself wanting to update some usernames for her computer accounts if they include her old last name. Because 3 years from now when it shows “mjones” is logged on, or printed a document, or needs to get an upgrade or whatever, that won’t make any sense to coworkers who have always known her as Mary Smith.

7

If you’re going to wait until after the name change takes effect to get the passport, you’ll have to expedite it. I can tell you that the matron-of-honor at my wedding was able to come to India on a passport with her old name and plane tickets with her new name. She just brought her marriage certificate.

We decided to keep our separate checking accounts for now, so we can withdraw from either brand of ATM when we’re together.

8

Thanks for the info so far. Changing benefits (other than during open enrollment) must be done within 31 days, so that’s definitely on the top of my to-do list.

The passport issue may be iffier. Based on the state dept’s site, it looks like processing time is 4-6 weeks. We’re not doing the honeymoon right away, there’s about 9-10 weeks between the wedding and the cruise. So that may be possible to do after her name change, since that way we can get her passport in her new name.

With taxes, I’m thinking that based on our particular situation, I think we’d save money filing jointly. I make more than her, and for the next year, I’d probably be in the 28% bracket by myself. But our combined income puts us into the 25% bracket if filing jointly, and it we’re not at any deduction limits either separately or jointly. I’m assuming that if we are married, the only choices are “Married, filing jointly” or “married filing separately”, right? Filing as “single” would be a no-no?

Keep the suggestions coming. My “after wedding” to-do list is starting to creep up on the “for wedding” to-do list. :slight_smile:

9

:dubious: You file as single, or you have your withholding set to the single levels?

10

I’m hoping just sets the withholding as single - I popped in to ask that very question. Filing your tax return as married-filing-separately is rarely beneficial. However, having the withholding set as single on the W-4 is often a good thing (we do it ourselves).

If you use TurboTax or something like that, next January it can be educational to play with the numbers both ways (sounds like you’ve already got that covered with the 25% bracket comment). We did actually have one year where it was better to file separately; there was a loophole in the IRA deductibility statute that meant my husband could take a deduction for his if we did it separately. This saved a couple hundred dollars.

With the name change etc. - there’s really no rush and if there’s a concern over the passport not getting there in time, you could do all that later on, and just get the passport in the maiden name. Besides, this leaves open the option of saying, loudly and in a shocked voice on the trip, “Miss Scifiance, I’ll have you know I’M A MARRIED MAN!” and watch other people turn purple :slight_smile:

Your IRAs and 401(k) accounts do indeed remain separate.

Mortgage / house: From what I understand, you’d sign a quitclaim deed giving your spouse half the house. I don’t think your mortgage company needs to be involved - there’s no real need to add the spouse to the mortgage, unless you’ll be refinancing.
Some links:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/06/REQCU3725.DTL (this one mentions a fiancee and not being able to deduct the fiancee’s share of the mortgage interest unless they refinance; since you’re married and would be filing jointly, that wouldn’t be an issue for you - all your income and deductions are pooled).

11

There are also expediting companies that specialize in getting passports quickly.
I ended up paying $100, this last fall, to get my passport renewed. That is on top of the fees from the government office and overnighting the info both ways.
I used Perry International and have used them before. I’ve been very happy with their services.

12

I’d agree with this. The mortgage company isn’t going to be terribly interested in your marriage, so you don’t need to contact them (unless, as stated, you are getting a new mortgage). All you’d really need to do is record a quit claim deed, executed by you, coveying the property to you and your wife*. Unfortunately, this is not something the clerk of court can prepare for you; they’ll merely record the document. So, you may want to ask an attorney to do it for you (it shouldn’t be too expensive - maybe $50.00; I’ve known/worked with attorneys who would do it as a courtesy, and not even charge).

*The rules of marital property vary by state to state, so I’m not sure how it works where you live. But, in Florida (where I live), the marital home is owned by the “tenancy by the entirety”, which is a separate legal entity from either husband or wife. Thus, by quit claiming your property to you and your wife, you aren’t actually giving her “half the house”; rather, your forming a new legal “being”, distinct from either you or your wife (valuable since it insulates the property from money judgments against either of you in your individual capacity).

Clearly, YLegalMMV

13

Yes, I meant to say we withhold as singles.