I am the breadwinner - why should I involve my spouse in financial planning?

It is very sad that in more than 90% of Indian families in the USA, husbands do not involve their spouses as part of family financial planning or while taking any major decisions related to investments or filing IRS taxes.

We are following the same tradition that we learned from our parents back in India (mostly fathers in the family handle all the finances-related matters). However, it is a very dangerous practice to follow the same approach in the USA and India. It will never bring financial freedom to your spouse and your family. It is very important for every one of us to understand If the family lost the breadwinner while living in the USA what happens next-

•       Spouse needs to collect all the documents (death certificate, marriage certificates, latest pay stubs, past 1040 tax returns etc..) for the breadwinner.

•       If the breadwinner VISA status is H1B then the spouse needs to apply for “Temporary Immigration Protection Status” – she needs to go the US consulate in India and needs to carry all the relevant documents including husband's Indian passport with the US VISA (this step is may not be applicable for GC and US citizens)

•       If you own a primary home and have a mortgage loan,  reach out to your mortgage loan servicer, and apply for temporary stoppage of the loans.

•       Contact Social Security Administration local office (SSA) and apply for Social Security Survivor Benefits

•       Contact life insurance companies for both through employer life insurance plan and any outside life insurance if your spouse signed up and  to start the claim process.

•       Reach out to husband's employer Human Resources office and transfer his 401k ownership  to inherited 401k under spouse name and the remaining spouse will get the account ownership and they have to decide if they need to rollover the 401k to Rollover Traditional IRA or ROTH IRA and allocate the funds based on their objectives and need to consider tax impacts if they convert it to ROTH accounts. The best strategy is to invest the funds under index funds and push the withdrawals until the retirement to avoid the 10% penalties and additional taxes based on taxable income

•       After the spouse gets TIPS status, she can get a job in the USA and start managing family personal finance which include handling bank accounts, credit cards,  funds transfer, mortgage payments, handling budget, filing taxes with the IRS, managing 401k/IRA/HSA and brokerage accounts, manage IBONDs and T-bills short term investments, real estate investments in the USA, managing all your assets in India, startup investments or any other alternative investments, handle benefits enrollment with her employer,  managing kid’s college planning, identify financial scams and staying away from financial scammers and bad actors.

The reason that I had provided the above details is so that the Indian families who are living in the USA need to understand the importance of educating their spouse to minimize their financial pain when an unexpected event happens.

But where do I begin?????......Read the next post

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