What Your Spouse Should Know About Your Financial Life

In most couples, one person handles the money. Not because of any grand decision — someone opened the first joint account, set up the automatic payments, and fifteen years later that's simply how it works.

It's efficient. It also means one of you could be handed the household's entire financial picture with no notice and no starting point.

A spouse does not necessarily need access to everything today. They should know enough that they could find the right information and the right people if circumstances changed.

That distinction matters. This isn't about pooling every login or auditing each other's spending. It's about making sure neither of you is starting from zero.

Where the money is held

Not balances — institutions. Which bank or credit union holds the day-to-day accounts, where the investments are, and whether anything is at an institution you never otherwise mention.

• Chequing and savings, and which one household bills come from
• RRSPs, TFSAs, RESPs, RRIFs and non-registered accounts
• Any accounts at institutions you no longer actively use
• A safety deposit box, if there is one, and where the key is

The people who already know your situation

This is often the highest-value item on the whole list. A spouse who can call your advisor by name is in a completely different position from one who can't.

• Financial advisor or planner — name, firm, phone
• Accountant or tax preparer
• Insurance broker
• Lawyer
• Employer HR or benefits contact
• Business partners, if applicable

Insurance and benefits

Life insurance is the classic gap — including group coverage through an employer or professional association, which people frequently forget they have.

• Life insurance: insurer, policy number, coverage amount, named beneficiaries
• Group life through work
• Disability and critical illness coverage
• Extended health and dental
• Home and auto policies

What comes in, and what goes out

• Income sources, including any that aren't a salary
• The mortgage: lender, payment, renewal date
• Other debts — lines of credit, loans, balances carried on cards
• Automatic payments and when they come out
• Property tax, condo fees, insurance premiums
• Subscriptions and memberships that renew annually

Retirement and long-term arrangements

• Workplace pensions, including ones from former employers
• Expected CPP and OAS entitlements
• Beneficiary designations on registered accounts — these pass outside a will and are commonly out of date
• Any trusts or arrangements set up for children

Business interests

If you own a company, your spouse may become the person everyone calls. They need to know who has signing authority, who the accountant and corporate lawyer are, how payroll runs, and who at the company should be told first.

Documents and where they live

• The will, and where the signed original is
• Powers of attorney and any personal directive
• Recent tax returns
• Property title or deed information
• Corporate records, if applicable

How to have the conversation

It doesn't need to be an evening of spreadsheets. A good version takes about forty minutes and sounds like a walk-through: here's where things are, here's who I'd call, here's where to find the rest.

1. 1Write it down first, on your own, so the conversation is a review rather than an interrogation.
2. 2Go through it together once, out loud.
3. 3Agree where it lives and how the other person reaches it.
4. 4Put a date in the calendar to look at it again next year.

Couples who do this once usually report the same thing afterward: it was less uncomfortable than expected, and it surfaced two or three things neither of them had thought about.