To all the Married people - Am I screwing myself?

[Christopher Boyle]

For all of you who are married (or soon to be), how are you handling your finances with your spouse?  Keep totally separate accounts, merge everything, or make a stand-alone new joint account?  My original thought was to merge everything for convenience, but will I be shooting-myself-in-the-foot by having the banks see us as ONE entity, and therefore limit the total number of loans that I can obtain with conventional financing?

A previous podcast had emphasized that huge advantage of keeping properties under only one spouse, rather than both, which allows up to 5 loans per person (instead of 5 total jointly).  I'm unclear if that's a decision that can be controlled at the time of purchase, or is dictated by your financial account set-up with the bank.

How do you and your spouse handle your accounts, and how has it impacted your financing options?