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In your family is there one person who manages the household finances? Is it you or is it your partner? If it’s you, would your partner know what to do if you weren’t able to manage things?

In our experience it’s not unusual to find that the family finances are mainly managed by one party. In fact, in a straw poll in our office we found it to be the norm.

However, we also know how difficult it can be if the non-financial partner suddenly finds that they have to manage everything alone, due to their partner not being around either because of illness or death.

We’d strongly recommend having a conversation about how the family finances are set up and alongside that a record of the banks, building societies and other organisations that are holding your family funds.

In these days of online accounts and investments the non-financial partner can no longer rely on statements arriving in the post to find out where the money is. If they lose access to email or even the laptop or computer used to access the accounts, they are going to find it very difficult to know where to start.

You might want to consider preparing a list or a spreadsheet (not password protected) so that all of the vital information is readily to hand as soon as it’s needed. It’s also important to keep the list up to date with an annual or even six-monthly review to ensure that the most current information is available.

While thinking about preparing the list, you might also want to consider whether your partner would have access to the accounts if you weren’t able to deal with things. If, for instance, it’s an ISA in your sole name, they would have no right to access the funds however much they were needed.

For this reason, we’d always recommend setting up Lasting Powers of Attorney for Property and Financial Affairs appointing each other as primary attorney, regardless of your ages, as this will enable you both to have access to funds if they are needed in an emergency.

If you’d like to talk to us in more detail about anything in this article, please contact Cath Collins on 01945 898090 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.*.

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