When it comes to relationships, there are plenty of struggles. What dating app to use, where to go to dinner, when to talk about “where things are going” and – once all those hurdles are jumped – whether to combine finances.
Shane Gornik, financial advisor at Forefront Financial Planning in Lisle, joined Rob Hart on the WBBM Newsradio Noon Business Hour this week to explain just how complicated this part of coupledom can be.
For couples where at least one of the partners has been married before (that was around 40% of all marriages in the U.S. as of 2024, per the Schoenberg Family Law Group). The Pew Research Center also noted last year that “gray divorces” of people age 50 and older has stayed at a steady level of about 11 in 1,000 since 2008.
“I would say the vast majority of clients I run into where they are married later in life, or it’s a second marriage or something along those lines, is that it’s more of a hybrid approach,” to combining finances, Gornik told Hart. “So, they could either be... they are completely separate and there’s no joint accounts whatsoever and each account, each spouse has their own individual account and what they might do is split bills.”
For example, one might cover mortgage payments while the other covers utilities. Another option is keeping separate accounts but establishing a joint operating account.
“One of the common things we do see – and it’s unfortunate, but we see it all the time,” is continued issues with joint finances or accounts that couples keep after a divorce, Gornik said. Sometimes, those are kept as part of divorce settlements.
So, Gornik recommended keeping that in mind and being careful when combining finances with a new partner after a divorce. There should also be considerations for children and former spouses when it comes to estate planning.
“When it’s older couples getting married and maybe they have children that they brought in from previous marriages or previous relationships, many times when they’re doing their estate planning. It’s not necessarily that their spouse gets everything. If they pass away, sometimes it’s that their kids get everything when they pass away. And that’s something that they agree upon together,” Gornik explained.
However, he stressed that each situation is different.
