There are number of important reasons for this. First off, not all spouses have the same goals and same concerns. Most often they are different, and it is vital that your plan meet the needs of both of you.
From experience, these conversations are most valuable when both spouses are involved. The decisions that you make will affect your financial future, your family and your children for decades to come. Seeing the full picture together helps you both understand your potential tax liability and decide together what direction makes the most sense for your family.
Secondly, when one passes it is important that the surviving spouse know where the assets are, how your income is generated, how the strategies that we put into place work and what may need to be changed.
Lastly, and we see this all the time. When one spouse says ‘I handle all of the finances,’ inevitably when it comes time to make the final decision, they always say; “I have to talk to my spouse first.” The problem with that is we do very sophisticated planning it is not possible to relay all of the details and reasoning for the decisions to the spouse who didn’t attend. So, that spouse ends up making an uninformed judgement. It is important to decide as a team, what direction makes the most sense for your family.
