You may wish to change the beneficiary of your insurance policies, pensions, and RRSP accounts if your spouse is the present beneficiary. If your spouse is the irrevocable beneficiary on such an <span class="noglossary">account</span>, your bank or insurance company may require your spouse's consent to remove his or her name as a beneficiary.

Most spouses own real estate as “joint tenants”. The essential feature of this type of ownership is that if one of you dies, then the surviving party will own the entire property. This does '''not''' change as a result of your separation.