Marriage Ties Your Hands

Amazing the number of things you can’t do to protect yourself financially unless you have your husband's cooperaion.

You can't undertake estate planning on your own. You can’t write your husband’s will.  You can’t take his medical exam for life insurance or long-term care insurance. You can’t be his health care proxy if he doesn’t assign you durable powers of attorney to make medical decisions for him. The same holds true for financial decisions.

In other words, you need your husband’s cooperation to protect yourself against the financial challenges you would face if he were disabled or died.

If your husband doesn’t face the fact that he’s mortal, your hands are tied.

If your marriage ends in divorce, your husband will not be the person most concerned about you. If your marriage ends in death, it’s too late to do anything constructive about your financial situation.  

You expect your mate to want to protect you because he says he loves you. But let’s get real. A marriage is as much a legal and financial partnership with obligations on both sides. Because love assumes many forms, we can rarely be sure we’re ascribing the same characteristics to your love and his love.

If he won’t cooperate with you for the financial protection you need and deserve, it’s safe to assume that your definition of love doesn’t match his.