Love and Marriage: The "Hard Talk" with Clients Getting Married

Author: Eva Rosenberg

Join Eva Rosenberg, EA, as she walks you through how to have the “hard talk” with your clients when they get engaged or contemplate getting married. Too many marriages break up over misunderstandings about each other’s financial practices or because of shocking financial revelations after marriage; like tax debt, unpaid child support, student loan debts offsetting refunds, or because one spouse didn’t reveal his or her financial obligations, debts or earlier families.

We will discuss steps to take to help each finance(e) learn about the other’s finances – the good, the bad, and the ugly. How to find the information about each other – with their permission and cooperation. And how to face and fix the problems we discover.

The goal is not prevent the marriage.
The goal is delay the marriage until some problems are resolved;
or set up a procedures to protect the injured spouse’s assets in advance.

Publication Date: March 2021

Designed For
Practitioners at all levels regardless of practice concentration, who work with individuals that are planning to get married; or might ever consider getting married. Taxpayers: This course can also be helpful to couples who want to learn more about how to have the “hard talk” about money and financial issues will be welcome. Additionally, couples who are already married and have just learned about a spouse’s tax debts and other IRS offsets that are grabbing their refunds.

Topics Covered

• Getting Engaged is Romantic
• Some Things to Ask
• Clarifying each party's attitude towards money
• Pulling Reports
• Getting answers about invisible obligations - like child support and alimony (in arrears?)
• Making provisions to clean up problems before marriage OR providing guidance on keeping income and assets separated
• When to Advise Marriage — if they are NOT Engaged?
• When to Not to Get Married at All
• When to Schedule the Marriage

Learning Objectives

• Recognize what questions to ask couples to break the ice
• Identify how to get complete disclosure from many sources on each fiancé(s) finances
• Recognize how to determine if the marriage should be postponed until tax and debt issues are cleared up
• Identify how to develop a strategy to resolve problems so they can get married
• Identify what to ask before marriage
• Identify the big three credit reporting agencies
• Describe how many years IRS transcripts are available for
• Recognize which type of debt is not one where the IRS is the collection agency
• Differentiate types of agreements and when to utilize them
• Recognize when you are considered married in various scenarios

Level
Basic

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Taxes (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None