Are you financially prepared for the death of a spouse? Failing to plan could leave you clueless

• Many couples make that vow on their wedding day - 'Till death do us part'.
• However, what happens to your finances once that day comes?
• Accountant Ed Garner talks about the importance of planning.

When a couple gets married, they recite wedding vows, where they promise to love each other until death. Although this phrase has been said so often, couples rarely stop and think about what it actually means. A couple spends a lot of time planning their finances but never financially prepare for the day they might become a widow or widower, as death is not planned. Fox 26's host Isiah Carey dives deeper into this conversation.

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Former supermodel, Pola, says women need to be ready for that day; this comes after she was disinherited from her late husband's will, which left her broke and devastated. To help Isiah get questions answered, accountant Ed Garner dives into husbands shielding some of their finances. "The problem is miscommunication - if you really love your partner, then you need to communicate and educate them because, let's face it, different spouses have different tasks. The wife might be taking care of the home and the children, and the husband says, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of finances'." 

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Ed adds that despite the husband's best intentions, what happens if he has a stroke or dies? The woman will be left clueless and in shock. "All of a sudden, they have to worry about paying the bills. So, what they need to do is be proactive and communicate about it ahead of time." Ed continues to say a conversation between a married couple about where all their assets are located is of utmost importance. "They need to sit down and go over where they have their money, talk about their expenses and not only that but talk about what you're going to do when the other partner dies, where you're going to live and what expenses will you have."

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If you are the breadwinner in the family, Ed says it's important to have a will or list of where everything is. "Like myself personally, my wife knows where we have everything. From old to updated passwords, because that is also another thing that people tend to forget to give their partners a list of updated passwords to get into different accountants."