夕陽婚 是退休的美夢還是噩夢(2)

Do it now: Find out what marriage means in your area. Depending on your state, province or country, marriage means different things, legally. In Canada, for instance, the Family Law Act is different for every province.

現在要做的事：瞭解婚姻在你所在的地區意味着什麼。根據你所在的州、省或國家的不同，婚姻的法律意義也有所差異。例如，加拿大每個省的《家事法》各不相同。

“It could be that the assets you came into the marriage with are yours, and yours forever,” Chung said. “It could be that after a certain period of time, those assets are up for splitting 50/50, which is a big concern when somebody has built up those assets over many decades.”

“你的婚前財產可能永遠屬於你自己。”茱莉亞•鍾說，“也有可能經過一段時間，你就要與配偶平分財產。如果一個人已經攢了幾十年的錢，他必然非常擔心這一問題。”

The same goes for different US states. “Every state has different rules on what happens when you get married, when you divorce and when you die,” said Vickie Adams, a financial planner in California in the US. “Marriage is a contract. You definitely want to understand how that will impact you.”

美國不同的州同樣存在這種問題。“每個州都針對結婚、離婚和死亡制定了不同的規定。”加州財務規劃師維基•亞當斯(Vickie Adams)說，“婚姻是一份協議，你肯定想知道這究竟會對你產生何種影響。”

Review your government benefits. Depending on where you live and your situation, marrying could affect the government benefits you’re receiving. In the US, a spouse’s income may affect your supplemental security income or cause you to lose the benefits — or any financial support from a previous marriage — you’re getting as a divorced spouse.

評估財政福利。根據你所在地方不同，以及你所處的環境差異，婚姻將對你獲得的財政福利產生影響。在美國，一對夫婦的收入可能會影響他們獲得的社會安全補助金，甚至會導致你失去以離婚人士的身份獲得的福利——或者從之前的婚姻中得到的財務支持。

In Canada, if you’re receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement, a spouse’s income could place you out of the income bracket for the benefit. It’s a good idea to check with a financial planner or with your government benefits office directly.

在加拿大，如果目前可以獲得保障性收入補助金，那麼在增加了配偶的收入後，你可能就將無法繼續享受這項福利。最好能諮詢財務規劃師，或者直接諮詢政府福利部門。

Think about taxes. How does combining incomes affect your tax bracket and what you’ll owe going forward? “Suddenly you have double the income,” Pressman said. “It’s conceivable that you would move up one tax bracket for at least part of your income.”

稅務問題。夫妻的合併收入將如何影響你的稅率等級，以及你今後的納稅額？“你突然之間多了一份收入，”普雷斯曼說，“稅率等級難免會提升一個等級，至少會有部分收入受到影響。”

Consider a prenuptial agreement. This is a document that clearly specifies what happens in case the marriage doesn’t work out. Going to a lawyer and getting a prenup may not seem romantic. “But it’s the most romantic thing you can do,” Chung said. “You’re saying, ‘You are my loved one and protecting your assets is important to me’.”

考慮簽訂婚前協議。這份文件將對婚姻破裂帶來的影響作出明確規定。找律師起草婚前協議似乎不夠浪漫。“但這其實是你能做的最浪漫的事情，”茱莉亞•鍾說，“你等於在說，‘你是我的摯愛，保護你的財產對我十分重要。’”

Discuss estate planning and other wishes. It may seem morbid, but linking your lives legally has an impact on what happens to your assets when you die. So, you'll need to modify any estate planning documents already in place to reflect your new family situation, or create new ones. For instance, many people with children from a previous marriage want to ensure that their children will still inherit something after they die.

討論遺產計劃和其他願望。這似乎有點不吉利，但結爲法律上的夫妻會對你身後的財產分配產生影響。所以，你需要根據新組建的家庭狀況調整已經制定的遺產計劃，或者制定一份新計劃。例如，很多在之前的婚姻中有孩子的人都希望在去世後由自己的孩子繼承遺產。

“Something that I’ve seen first-hand is where second marriages occur, and one spouse passes away and all of the assets were titled jointly, so they all go to the surviving spouse,” Pressman said. “Then the surviving spouse says, ‘Hey, I’m not leaving anything to their kids,’ and suddenly you’ve got this big problem.”

“我親眼看到過這種情況：一對夫婦二婚後，其中一方去世了，但由於所有財產都署上了兩個人的名字，所以這些財產都歸健在的一方所有。”普雷斯曼說，“後來，健在的一方說，‘我不會給他們的孩子留下任何東西。’這時就會出大問題。”

In some countries, there is the opposite issue. In France, children are “protected heirs,” so they are entitled to receive a proportion of their natural parent’s estate. “In the absence of appropriate planning being undertaken, if the survivor is a step-parent, he or she may be poorly protected,” said Daphne Foulkes, a partner with the Spectrum IFA Group in France.

某些國家的問題恰恰相反。在法國，子女是“受保護的繼承人”，所以他們有權繼承其親生父母的一部分遺產。“由於沒有制定適當的規劃，倘若健在的人是繼父或繼母，他或她就有可能得不到充分保護。”法國 Spectrum IFA Group 合夥人達芙妮•福克斯(Daphne Foulkes)說。

If it’s important to you, take care of it legally — and make it official. “If it’s not written and in a legal, binding document, it means nothing,” Pressman said.

如果此事對你很重要，那就要合法而明確地處理此事。“如果沒有書面內容，也沒有簽訂約束性的法律文件，那就毫無意義。”普雷斯曼說。

Do it later: Revisit your beneficiaries. Once you tie the knot, go back through all of your accounts with beneficiaries — retirement accounts, insurance policies — and make sure the beneficiaries are still whom you want them to be. You may want to take an ex-spouse off the paperwork, for instance, or split assets equally between your children and your new spouse.

以後要做的事：重新考慮你的財產受益人。一旦再婚，就應該認真瞭解你所有賬戶的受益人——包括退休金賬戶和保險政策——確保這些受益人仍然符合你的意願。例如，你或許希望將前配偶從文件中刪除，或者讓你的子女與新配偶平分自己的財產。

Do it smarter: Sit down with your family. Ideally this should happen before you get married, but if it doesn’t, it should definitely happen after the wedding vows. Let your children know what’s happening with the family finances and how your marriage affects them — because they probably have questions.

講究方法：與家人坐下來溝通。在理想情況下，應該在結婚前採取這些措施，但如果未能實現，也必須在結婚之後完成這些事情。應該讓你的孩子知道家庭財務狀況將面臨什麼狀況，你的婚姻會對他們產生何種影響——因爲他們很可能會有疑問。

“As a rule of thumb, the best thing we can do is be as transparent as possible,” Chung said. “You can say, ‘I’m creating a plan, and these are the concerns that the lawyers brought up, and these are the ways we’re talking about dealing with them.’”

“經驗表明，最好的辦法就是儘可能透明。”茱莉亞•鍾說，“你可以告訴他們，‘我制定了一份計劃，這些都是律師提出的擔憂，而這些則是我們探討的解決方案。’”