In my book Women & Money: Mastering the Struggle, I’ve endorsed shared financial responsibility and participation. This is healthy for all relationships. It provides a foundation upon which you can build your current and future lives. It also enables you to cope better with any emotionally and financially challenging life event that may occur.
A key to planning and being ready to cope with unpredictable life events is possessing knowledge. Accordingly, as individuals in a relationship and in the nature of joint participation, I think every woman and man should, as a bare minimum, know the following:
1. The market value of your home and any other real estate you own.
2. Whether you owe any debt in respect of your home and other assets such as investment properties and if this is the case, who are your lenders, plus the amounts and terms of the loans.
3. If either of you has income protection, trauma and/or life insurance and if so, details of the policies. For instance, where the policy document is kept, the name of the insurer, how much will be paid out under the policy and who are the named beneficiaries.
4. Where your bank accounts are held, their respective account numbers, the types of accounts held jointly and individually, plus the month-end balances held in each joint bank account.
5. If there are other assets such as money held on term deposits or in bonds, or if you have funds invested in shares and/or managed funds. In relation to these assets, you need to know what the asset is, who owns the asset, what the value of the asset is and where the asset is held, including contact details of who manages the asset.
6. If you and your partner have superannuation policies, who that provider is and the amount of money in your superannuation plans.
7. Whether you have up-to-date Wills, where your Wills are kept and the main provisions of your Wills.
8. If either of you have Powers of Attorney, where your documents are kept, who the Attorney is and under what circumstances the Attorney can work.
9. Who your professional advisers are such as your Lawyer, Accountant, Financial Adviser, Sharebroker, etc. and their respective contact details.
Extract from ‘Women & Money: Mastering the Struggle’ by Janet Xuccoa, Cheshire Publishing, RRP $34.95
