Valentine?s Day is over; it is only three months away from the most significant event month in the year, June weddings. In February, I gave you a self-assessment financial compatibility quiz. Both parties passed with flying colours; things are looking simply marvellous (that is both you and the relationship situation). In fact, you are taking the quantum leap and planning to make it permanent. You lucky in love couples; hopefully, the rest of you unattacheds have had a commitment from your partner.

Those already in a long-term lifestyle arrangement, legal or otherwise, may have overcome the first hurdle of talking about money. Even you, though, should think about completely assessing your financial picture from soup to nuts. It?s always amazing to me how fast time passes, and how easy it is to put financial planning for your precious future on hold.

It is not easy keeping track of the enormous amounts of financial information today. It requires discipline and time to I?ve had some clients comment that they aren?t sure if their will is current for instance. In other cases, a spouse has died and the survivor documents cannot be found ? that is the safe deposit box is empty.

When two people combine households and finances, there are many items to consider:

Have you reviewed your life insurance policies and updated your beneficiaries? Is the face value enough/too much given your change in circumstances?

Do you know what your net worth is?

Do you keep your financial statements/records in a safe place?

How are your assets titled? In the most advantageous way for both of you?

Is your property, casualty and content insurance enough?

If you are lucky enough to each own property, which home is best suited for conjugal living? Can you afford to keep both?

Is your manageable?

Should you consider consolidating the debt and developing a plan to pay it off?

Is your long-term debt reasonable for your age?

Can you make plans to pay all debt off before you are retired?

Can you set aside a contingency fund for emergencies?

Do you both have a regular savings plan (besides your pensions)?

Are you workplace skills current? Can you support each other in further education?

Are you vested in a pension plan?

For the more mature couples already married or in a second marriage: Have you ever worked in other countries? Do you know is you are entitled to a foreign pension?

Do you have disability insurance as an employee benefit? If you don?t, can you afford to purchase an individual policy?

Do you routinely try to invest small amounts for long-term financial security?

Do you set aside time every few months to review your joint investments?

Have your financial needs changed?

Are your original investments still appropriate? Too aggressive, too passive, the same goes for your pension investments?

Do you know what the opportunity costs for your investments are?

Do you both feel comfortable working (or want to work) with a financial advisor?

Do you have a mutual goal you want to attain?

Have your updated your will to reflect your marital/single status?

Have you included a durable power of attorney, health care directive?

Are your assets correctly titled?

Does your financial situation necessitate establishing a trust?

Are your beneficiary designations updated?

This is a simple quick checklist to help you get your new dual financial life in order. Take the time now to get all of financial affairs current.

Most importantly, there is no point going through all of these exercises and then never putting your plans into place, or forgetting to store documents where they can be found. Question: Where do you keep your important documents? And best wishes for those wedding plans?