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A British family law firm is urging couples to take a “compatibility quiz” before getting married or deciding to live together.

Bross Bennett’s
compatibility test focuses on key questions about finances, family
ties, children and aspirations that most couples struggle with and
might have to answer anyway if their marriage breaks down and they end
up divorcing.

Partner Ruth Bross
compared taking the quiz to the kind of considerations and research an
employer might make before hiring someone.

“No one who is
truly committed to a relationship will ever mind making the full and
frank disclosure that is asked of them; if they do, you might like to
ask yourself why,” she said in an emailed statement containing the quiz.

The quiz asks
about assets and how each party would like to share them, what kind of
relationships they have with their extended family and friends, whether
they want children, their religious views, spending habits and career
plans:

A copy of the quiz is below:

Finance

Do you know the
extent of each other’s assets? How do you both view the sharing of
these assets? Do you have the same attitude to saving?

Will one of you want to put into a pension what the other wants to put into a new car?

Will you pool your
resources or do you want to keep everything separate? Joint accounts or
separate? Will you contribute in proportion to your incomes, or equally?

Are you going to have to pay off your partner’s debts perhaps from what you thought was going to be the deposit on your house?

Family Ties

What sort of
relationship do you have with your extended family? Are they good at
staying in touch? Are they local? Affectionate? Over-involved? Have you
had any major fallings out?

Children

Do you want
children? How many? How do you want to raise your children? What sort
of values do you want to pass on? Do you have opposing views about the
benefits of state versus private education — and should you be
thinking now about buying in a catchment area for a good state school?

Religion

What are your
religious views — do you agree on what religion you will bring up the
children in? Church/mosque/synagogue? Once a week or once a year? Or no
religion at all.

Leisure and fun

Do you like doing
the same things in your spare time? Do you share common interests? Is
your idea of a holiday lying flat on the beach for two weeks and your
partner’s rock-climbing?

Lifestyle

What sort of
lifestyle are you aiming for? Where do you want to live? Do either of
you have a dream of downsizing at some point and living away from the
city?

Spending

Do you have an
expensive shoe or gadget habit? Does one of you think of a particular
purchase as an essential that the other regards as a “discretionary
spend”? Do you have any other secret addictions: handbags, chocolate,
football? Do you gamble, online or otherwise?

Work

Are your
respective career paths compatible; is either of you going to have to
make compromises? Are you prepared to? Will you want to give up work
when you have children? What does your partner think about this and can
you manage financially? What about part-time working?

Roles – traditional or modern?

Will you expect to
live along traditional lines: woman as homemaker and man as
breadwinner? Who will organise the finances? Will household
responsibilities be shared equally? Who will assume responsibility for
paying bills?

Honesty

Are there any old flames for whom you still hold a candle?