For unmarried couples in long-term relationships, being non-spouses from a legal standpoint may be an unremarkable part of everyday life. However, in the event of death, that unwed status can make a huge difference. While the person who passed away might have wanted their partner to receive all or some assets, they “don’t get the automatic safety net that comes with marriage,” said certified financial planner Jared Gagne, an associate wealth advisor with Claro Advisors in Boston.<\/p>\n
“The most important thing to understand is that the law does not see you as a default unit,” Gagne said. “If one partner dies without planning, state law typically sends assets to blood relatives \u2026 not the partner who’s been sharing a home and a life with them.”<\/p>\n
Living together without formally marrying has become a more common arrangement and largely accepted: According to a 2019 Pew Research Center study, 69% of U.S. adults say cohabitation is fine even if a couple doesn’t plan to get married. That viewpoint has occurred alongside shifts in when people get married \u2014 or if they do at all.<\/p>\n
Fewer than half, 47%, of U.S. households \u2014 of which there are roughly 135 million \u2014 are married couples, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s down from about 66% in 1975, when there were just over 71 million U.S. households. The estimated median age at first marriage is now 30.8 for men and 28.4 for women, up from ages 23.5 and 21.1, respectively, in 1975.<\/p>\n
The first key document to put in place long before you need it involves pre-death considerations \u2014 giving financial and medical authority to each other in case one of you becomes incapacitated, CFP John Hixson, a senior advisor at FMP Wealth Advisers in Lake Charles, Louisiana. “The big mistake is people don’t do anything at all or they [try to] do it too late,” Hixson said.<\/p>\n
Durable powers of attorney for health care would allow your partner to make medical decisions on your behalf if you cannot on your own. This is separate from a living will, which states your wishes if you are put on life support or suffer from a terminal condition. You also can extend powers of attorney for your finances, which would allow your partner to manage your money and access your accounts in that same situation.<\/p>\n
The next standard document you should have is a will, where you state your wishes about who gets what. If you die without one \u2014 called dying intestate \u2014 the courts in your state will pass everything on according to state law, which could mean assets will go to the closest living family member. However, a will alone won’t necessarily cover all your bases. For example, whoever is listed as a beneficiary on each of your tax-advantaged retirement accounts \u2014 individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans and the like \u2014 will generally get the money, regardless of what your will says.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, you can create a revocable living trust and put the house \u2014 as well as other assets that may otherwise be subject to probate \u2014 in the trust. This would allow you to manage your assets while alive, and then pass them directly to the intended beneficiary without going through probate. You also could create a trust “that lets a surviving partner live in the house or receive income for life, while legally locking in that the remaining assets ultimately pass to your children, siblings” or other beneficiaries, Gagne said.<\/p>\n
To ensure your partner is protected in the event of your death, review your beneficiary designations on all accounts, including retirement and life insurance policies, and update them as needed to reflect your current wishes. For more information on this topic, you can visit Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For unmarried couples in long-term relationships, being non-spouses from a legal standpoint may be an unremarkable part of everyday life. However, in the event of death, that unwed status can make a huge difference. While the person who passed away might have wanted their partner to receive all or some assets, they “don’t get the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/image.cnbcfm.com\/api\/v1\/image\/108241924-1765820775249-gettyimages-2207840721-file33copy.jpeg?v=1765820795&w=1920&h=1080","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosahustle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}