[Marital regimes] Identifying real needs

It therefore follows that you must know what kind of questions to expect from your financial adviser.

There is certain basic information that must be established upfront, such as your marital status. We are going to examine the different types of marital regimes in the next five weeks, but before we do so, let us unpack why it is so important to have this information.

A single person's needs will be very different from that of a married person. In many such cases there are two needs that will be a priority, and depending on how old you are, the degree of urgency with which the need must be addressed will differ:

• The loss of the potential to earn an income will in most cases, be a primary need - should a disability occur, who will care for the single person? Will you have to return to your parent's home? What other options do you have in place?
  
• The need to provide for retirement savings, what provision have you made as a single person? If insufficient then who will step in to make good the difference? Are there any former dependants who will feel a moral obligation to assist or will there be a reliance on the state?
  
• However, there are many people who are in permanent relationships with life partners - and they have certain obligations to these people. There are also single people who were previously married or who have dependants from other relationships, and so have maintenance responsibilities.

So the question cannot simply be: "what is your marital status?" It must go further than that, to find out what has happened in the past that will impact on financial planning for the future.

A person who is married will in addition to a concern for protecting income - both current and at retirement also have a need to provide for dependants in the event of premature death. This need will change over time as the dependants get older. The concept of dependency may also differ from person to person - so in certain situations, for example, there is an obligation to take care of one's parents, whereas in others it is only ones spouse and/or minor children that must be looked after.

Not only do the needs differ, but the marital regime will also have an impact on the actual planning, particularly the estate planning. A couple married in community of property have different challenges and needs to a couple married out of community of property excluding the accrual - throw in a previous marriage and dependants and it becomes really interesting!

The ability to identify real needs, and then to put an effective plan in place is a requirement for all financial planners who wish to be known as "professional" financial planners. In our next feature we will look at in community of property marriages specifically.