Compare workplace benefits and health insurance
Once you’re married, you may wish to evaluate your health insurance. Marriage and other life events qualify for a special enrollment period for employer-provided benefits or in the health insurance marketplace.
It’s important to act relatively quickly because there is a deadline for making changes to your health insurance or other benefits.
Typically, you’ll have 30 days (or 31) to make changes to your employer benefits following a qualifying life event. During the special enrollment period, you can make changes to health insurance and other benefits like increasing your savings in a health care flexible spending account, signing up for a dependent care flexible spending account, or increasing life insurance coverage.
You’ll have 60 days to enroll in or change a marketplace plan.
Wills and beneficiaries after marriage
Estate planning isn’t limited to the wealthy—it’s for anyone who is considering protecting their family with a plan. A few relatively easy steps can outline a plan to honor your wishes after you die.
If you and your spouse haven’t created a will, it’s not too late to write one. A will is a legal document that can set forth your wishes on things like the distribution of your assets and who will care for your children when you die.
Review your beneficiaries—primary and contingent. Typically, under federal law, your spouse is automatically the primary beneficiary on a workplace savings account—check your plan rules to make sure. You can ask your spouse to sign a waiver if you both agree you want to name another beneficiary.
You should also check the beneficiaries named on your other financial accounts and life insurance policies. Be sure your accounts are up-to-date and reflect your current wishes, as beneficiaries named on accounts take precedence over instructions given in other estate planning documents. Check with an estate planning attorney to ensure that your plans can be honored.
- Advance health care directives, also called living wills, outline a person’s wishes for treatment if incapacitated. They typically accompany a durable power of attorney for health care, also known as a health care proxy.
- A durable power of attorney for finances lets you choose an agent to make financial decisions and pay bills if you can’t.