Your Name. As the bride, you can choose whether to take your husband’s last name, keep your own, or create some combination of the two names. Husbands are also free to take their bride’s name if they chose, although this is uncommon. Partners to a civil union may chose to take each other’s name or to make any combination. If you change your name, you will have to send notification of your name change to people such as the Social Security office, the Post Office, and any place where you have charge accounts or credit cards. The Post Office has handy cards to help you do this.
Bank Accounts. As a married couple or partners in a civil union, you may wish to change your bank accounts to “joint accounts”—accounts in both of your names. Joint accounts can provide a “right of survivorship,” which means if either of you dies, the other spouse automatically owns everything in the account. Joint accounts are also handy in that you both have equal access to your funds, which could be important in cases of sickness or emergencies. However, it can be difficult to keep good records if more than one person writes checks on a joint account.
Property. Each of you owns what you brought into the marriage, whether it be real estate, a car, jewelry, cash, household items, or any other property. Being married does not give you, as husband or as wife, or a partner in a civil union, the right to manage the other person’s property. It does, however, make your property subject to distribution by the family court in the event of divorce or dissolution.
Property that you bring to the marriage or acquire during your marriage belongs to both of you and is considered “marital” property that can be divided if you get divorced.
Premarital Agreements. Two people may agree to certain terms in the event that the marriage or civil union fails by signing a contract prior to the marriage. In this contract, you and your future spouse may determine what rights you each have to certain property, how that property will be divided in a divorce or dissolution, and whether either of you will pay alimony to the other. You can also agree to the terms of death benefits and the making of wills. You cannot change the terms of child support if it will adversely affect the child. To be valid, a premarital contract must satisfy specific requirements, and you should consult an attorney if you are considering entering into one.
On Your Own, 2008 Edition
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