Marriage checklist

Shared banking and insurances

When your life together begins it is good to go through these banking and insurance related matters together, either before or right after you get married.

Checklist

• personal account access rights
• possible joint account for shared expenses
• owner-customership for both

• OP bonus account and family bonus account
• the combining of any existing personal loans
• How do we live? Should you sell your existing home or make it a buy-to-let home?
• Your shared own new home; where, what kind and how?
  • home loan
  • guarantors
  • collateral
  • selling your old home

• insurances
  • home
  • personal insurance/beneficiaries
  • travel insurance
  • any animal insurance

• A shared dream by saving
  • savings accounts
  • monthly fund saving

• consumer credit
• prenuptial agreement
• last will and testament

Name changes

If a name change of one or both spouses becomes topical due to marriage, it should be taken care of as soon as possible. The website of the Local Register Office (www.maistraatti.fi) offers a list of places you need to inform about the name change.

A new surname also affects your official identification document, which you need to confirm your identity. The Local Register Office website also contains information about where you can get your identification document and what you need to do to get it.

Do not forget to inform other interested groups, such as your relatives, friends, employer and housing company, about the name change.

Will you form a reconstituted family?

These days there is a growing number of reconstituted families around. Reconstituted family refers to a family where one or both of the spouses has previously been married or in a cohabiting relationship and may have children together or from previous relationships.

Prepare for the division of assets early

When the assets of two people are combined through marriage, it is good to also go through the possible division of the assets. Both the prenuptial agreement and the last will and testament are contracts that can be used to distribute assets in a way that the couple wishes.

Prenuptial agreement

Prenuptial agreement has a negative ring to many young couples who are planning their wedding. In reality, questions related to the distribution of assets should be on the checklist of everyone thinking about getting married; even if the marriage last – as the wedding vows says – until death do you apart, at least then do the assets need to be distributed. That is why it makes sense to make sure before the marriage that the assets will be distributed in the manner best suited for the couple.

If no prenuptial agreement has been draw up, the assets of both spouses are added together when the marriage ends and divided equally between both parties. This is also done if one spouse has considerably more or less assets than he or she did when the couple got married. It is worth noting that an owned company or a part of one is also included in the assets divided under marital rights.

Last will and testament

In addition to a prenuptial agreement, it is also wise to prepare for the worst – that is, death. Each one of us may be suddenly faced with the death of a loved one and in that case it is very good to have a last will and testament.

Last will and testament is a document

• declaring a person's wishes regarding the distribution of his or her assets upon his or her death.
• that may also affect the intestate order of succession.
• that you may also use to receive tax benefits.
• that you should consider drawing up if you want to, for example, ensure the right-of-occupancy of your spouse in a jointly-owned home.
• that can help you when you want to remove the marital rights to assets received with the testament of the spouses of the testament's beneficiaries.
• that can be used in a reconstituted family to name, for example, the children of your spouse as beneficiaries.

Both the prenuptial agreement and the last will and testament can be drawn up by Osuuspankki's legal services.