One bank account

Err... no... Bank accounts are like underwear: personal!

There should be one account for bills and separate accounts that are for personal savings, each to the benefit of the other should one of you die.

No I have done that before and ended up loosing a fortune, now it's separate accounts all the way.

I believe you should have 1 joint account and one separate account

Always separate accounts. Of course, I am the dominant with our finances, as my mate is bad with money, so I control both the accounts, but if I need what is in his account, I tell him what I will be using it for first, and we agree. e simply has no access without permission because he is a spendthrift and would quickly run us both broke if e had unlimited access to our funds.