What to Do After Getting Married: Organizing Your Financial and Legal Life

Congratulations on tying the knot! First comes love, then comes marriage—and then comes the task of organizing your financial and legal lives as a newly married couple. While it might not sound romantic, tackling these responsibilities early ensures a smoother path toward your shared goals. 

The key to success? A solid strategy and a tool like the OWL Planner to streamline the process. Designed to serve as an estate planning binder and family document organizer, the OWL Planner can help you stay on top of your joint responsibilities with ease. At OWL Planners, our goal is to help you and your spouse stay organized not just with finances, but also with important paperwork such as insurance policies, wills, and other legal documents.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started. 

Create a Financial Plan Together 

1. Combine (or Reorganize) Bank Accounts 

Now that you’re married, you’ll need to decide whether to merge bank accounts, keep separate ones, or use a combination of both. Many couples opt for a joint checking account for shared expenses like rent and groceries, while maintaining individual accounts for personal spending. 

Pro tip: Keep a copy of your account information in an important document organizer like the OWL Planner. This ensures quick access to passwords, bank account numbers, routing numbers, and other critical details. 

2. Review Income and Expenses 

Start by listing your combined income and shared expenses. This includes mortgage or rent payments, utilities, groceries, and even subscriptions like streaming services. Use a family budget spreadsheet or app to keep track of everything, and set financial goals like saving for a home or paying off student loans. 

3. Update Beneficiary Information 

Marriage is the perfect time to update your beneficiary designations. If you have retirement accounts, life insurance policies, or other investments, make sure your spouse is listed as the beneficiary if that’s your intent. Keep copies of these updates in your estate planning binder so they’re easy to access. 

Tackle Legal Documents Together 

4. Draft or Update Your Wills 

Whether or not you already have a will, getting married necessitates an update. Your will should outline how assets will be distributed, who will serve as executor, and who will become guardians of any future children, if applicable. 

Store copies of your current will in your next of kin binder, like the OWL Planner. This ensures both partners and trusted family members know exactly where to find it in case of an emergency. 

5. Establish Powers of Attorney 

Granting your spouse power of attorney allows them to make financial or medical decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to do so. Couples often establish both a financial power of attorney to handle money matters and a medical power of attorney for healthcare decisions. 

Add these documents to your estate planning binder to create a centralized system for all legal paperwork. 

6. Update Your Identification Information 

After marriage, many individuals choose to update their last name on official documents such as driver’s licenses, passports, and Social Security cards. Whether you decide to make this change or stick with your current name, keeping updated versions of your identification in a family document organizer can make life simpler. 

Build an Estate Planning Checklist

An estate planning checklist is your roadmap to ensuring all your legal and financial bases are covered. Key items to address include the following:

• Creating or updating wills 

• Listing assets and debts

• Reviewing or obtaining life insurance 

• Naming executors and guardians 

• Setting up trusts (if necessary) 

• Adding details about funeral arrangements and preferences 

With a tool like the OWL Planner, you can customize your checklist and track your progress, making estate planning a more manageable and less overwhelming task. 

Why Choose the OWL Planner? 

The OWL Planner isn’t just a family document organizer—it’s your all-in-one solution for managing the complexities of married life. With dedicated sections for financial records, legal paperwork, and estate planning documents, this planner makes it easy to stay organized and prepared. 

Key Features of the OWL Planner:

• Space to store joint financial information (bank accounts, retirement funds, etc.)

• Sections for wills, power of attorney documents, and other legal essentials 

• An intuitive layout to serve as an estate planning binder or next of kin binder for loved ones 

• Durable design to protect your most valuable documents 

By streamlining your financial and legal responsibilities into one system, the OWL Planner helps couples focus more on their future and less on administrative headaches. 

Build Your Future, Together.

Marriage is about building a life together, and that extends to how you manage your finances and legal responsibilities. With the right tools and a little teamwork, you can set the foundation for a secure, organized future. 

Start your married life on the right foot—explore the OWL Planner today and see how it can simplify your post-marriage to-do list!