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What Happens If My Partner Dies and We’re Not Married?

Estate Planning For Life's Stages

A married couple planning their marital trust.
All couples can now take advantage of tax benefits for married partners, pass assets from one spouse to another with ease and qualify for Social Security spousal and survivor benefits. However, not all couples want to get married.

Not all life partners wish to get married. Planning for a life together without the legal protections provided by marriage means couples who decide not to marry must be sure to do estate planning; otherwise, they may find themselves in life-altering situations concerning property ownership, parental rights, and inheritances.

Let’s discuss a few estate planning items that life partners need to consider to ensure their legacy is protected.

Start with a last will and testament.

Unmarried couples without children need a will if they want to leave each other property. Otherwise, the laws of most states will have property going to the legal next-of-kin, which might be parents, siblings, or cousins. No matter how long the couple has been together, they have no legal inheritance rights if they are not married.

Other estate planning basics are important to protect each other while living.

Without documents like a financial power of attorney and a health care proxy for both partners, medical and other health care providers might not allow your partner to make critical health decisions on your behalf.

Accounts with named beneficiaries – typically including life insurance policies, retirement funds, investment accounts, and similar financial products – aren’t distributed by the terms of your will. Instead, they pass directly to beneficiaries on death.

Whether married or not, every major life event, including death, birth, breakup, or any other major change, should involve updating beneficiaries to accurately reflect your wishes.

Unmarried couples with children need to be especially diligent about estate planning. 

If a biological parent dies, their assets go to their biological children. However, when a non-biological parent dies, all of their assets could go to other relatives – unless a will is in place and beneficiaries are properly named.

What about if the non-biological parent takes the step of legally adopting the children? We recommend that you still check on the parental rights. If accounts do not have beneficiaries named, the assets will go to next of kin, a parent or sibling and not the child or partner.

Home ownership is another financial issue to tackle for unmarried couples.

To prove home ownership, a document clearly stating how the home is owned, how much each invested in the home, who is responsible for mortgage and tax payments, how to divide the home if it’s sold, and who has the right to live in the home if the couple breaks up or if one dies or becomes disabled is needed. If a home is solely in one person’s name and the other partner dies, the surviving partner may end up being evicted if the proper protections are not in place.

In Summary

For unmarried couples, meeting with an estate planning attorney is necessary to protect each other now and in the future. Schedule a free consultation call with the team at Ozarks Legacy Law to get started protecting your legacy.

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