Unmarried couples face unique estate planning challenges because they lack the automatic legal protections that marriage provides. Without proper planning, your partner has no legal right to inherit your property, make medical decisions for you, or access your accounts during incapacity. State intestate succession laws exclude unmarried partners entirely, directing your assets to blood relatives instead. Comprehensive estate planning becomes absolutely necessary rather than merely advisable for couples who choose not to marry or cannot legally marry.
Our friends at New Beginnings Family Law help unmarried couples create documents that provide the protections marriage would give automatically. An estate planning lawyer can explain which documents you need and how to structure your plan to protect both partners and honor your relationship.
The Legal Reality For Unmarried Partners
Marriage creates automatic legal rights that unmarried couples simply don’t have. Married spouses inherit automatically under intestate succession laws if there’s no will. They have legal authority to make healthcare decisions for incapacitated spouses. They can access each other’s medical information under HIPAA without special authorization.
Unmarried partners get none of these protections. Your relationship, no matter how long or committed, creates no legal rights. Your partner is legally a stranger with no more claim to your property or decision-making authority than any random person.
Without estate planning documents, your partner receives nothing when you die unless you’ve explicitly provided for them. Your assets pass to your parents, siblings, or other blood relatives according to state intestate succession laws. Your partner has no standing to challenge this distribution.
Wills And Trusts For Property Transfer
Wills are absolutely necessary for unmarried couples. Your will explicitly names your partner as a beneficiary and specifies what they should inherit. Without a will, state law excludes your partner completely.
Your will should clearly state your intention to leave property to your partner. This explicit language helps defend against potential challenges from family members who might object to your partner receiving your assets.
Revocable living trusts provide additional benefits beyond wills. Trust assets avoid probate, transferring to your partner more quickly and privately than will-based bequests. Trusts also provide incapacity planning that wills cannot offer.
For unmarried couples with significant assets or potential family conflict, trusts often work better than wills alone. The privacy and probate avoidance protect your partner from family members who might challenge a will or create difficulties during probate.
Healthcare Powers Of Attorney
Healthcare powers of attorney are perhaps the most important document for unmarried couples. This document designates your partner as your healthcare agent with authority to make medical decisions if you cannot make them yourself.
Without this document, medical providers will not discuss your condition with your partner or allow them to participate in treatment decisions. HIPAA privacy laws prohibit sharing medical information with anyone except legal spouses and designated healthcare agents.
Your healthcare power of attorney should explicitly state that your partner has full authority to make all medical decisions and access all medical information. This clear language prevents hospitals from excluding your partner during medical crises.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, healthcare providers must honor properly executed healthcare powers of attorney regardless of the relationship between patient and agent.
HIPAA Authorization
Separate HIPAA authorization forms explicitly permit healthcare providers to share your medical information with your partner. While healthcare powers of attorney include some HIPAA authorization, standalone forms provide additional clarity.
Many hospitals and medical practices have their own HIPAA forms. Complete these forms during routine visits to ensure your partner can access information if you’re hospitalized unexpectedly.
HIPAA authorization lets your partner discuss your condition with doctors, review test results, understand treatment options, and stay informed about your medical care. Without it, medical staff legally cannot share this information regardless of your relationship.
Financial Powers Of Attorney
Financial powers of attorney authorize your partner to manage your financial affairs during incapacity. They can access bank accounts, pay bills, manage investments, and handle all financial matters when you cannot.
This document is particularly important for couples who share expenses and financial obligations. Without it, your partner cannot access your accounts to pay the mortgage, utilities, or other bills even if those expenses support your shared household.
Name your partner as your financial agent and specify broad powers to handle all financial transactions. Consider whether you want the power to be effective immediately or only upon incapacity.
Essential estate planning documents for unmarried couples:
- Will leaving property to partner
- Revocable living trust for probate avoidance
- Healthcare power of attorney
- HIPAA authorization
- Financial power of attorney
- Living will or advance directive
- Beneficiary designations on accounts
- Property ownership documentation
Property Ownership Strategies
How you title property significantly affects whether your partner inherits. Property owned solely in your name must go through probate and passes according to your will or state intestate laws.
Joint tenancy with right of survivorship lets you and your partner own property jointly with automatic transfer to the survivor. When one partner dies, the surviving partner becomes sole owner without probate.
Tenancy by the entirety, available in some states for unmarried couples, provides similar survivorship benefits plus some creditor protection. Check whether your state permits this ownership form for unmarried partners.
Community property with right of survivorship exists in some states and provides tax benefits similar to married couples. However, most community property states limit this ownership form to married spouses.
Beneficiary Designations
Life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts transfer according to beneficiary designations, not wills. Name your partner as beneficiary on all accounts where you want them to inherit.
Review beneficiary designations regularly. Life changes like ending previous relationships mean outdated designations might send assets to ex-partners instead of your current partner.
Retirement accounts have tax implications for non-spouse beneficiaries. Your partner cannot roll inherited IRAs into their own accounts like spouses can. Understanding these tax consequences helps you make informed beneficiary designation decisions.
Defending Against Family Challenges
Unmarried partners face higher risk of family challenges to estate plans. Disapproving relatives might contest wills or claim undue influence.
Document your mental capacity when executing estate planning documents. Some people arrange for their attorney to include statements in file notes about their competence and clear decision-making.
Consider including no-contest clauses in your will. These provisions disinherit anyone who unsuccessfully challenges the will, deterring frivolous contests.
Letters explaining your decisions to family members can reduce challenges. While not legally binding, these letters demonstrate your clear intentions and reasoning.
Domestic Partnership And Civil Union Protections
Some states and municipalities recognize domestic partnerships or civil unions that provide some legal protections without marriage. These registered relationships might create automatic inheritance rights, healthcare decision-making authority, or other benefits.
Research your state and local laws to understand what protections, if any, registered domestic partnerships provide. Even with these registrations, comprehensive estate planning documents remain important.
Don’t assume domestic partnership registration replaces estate planning. Many protections still require explicit documentation regardless of registration status.
Cohabitation Agreements
Cohabitation agreements are contracts between unmarried partners addressing property ownership, financial obligations, and what happens if the relationship ends or one partner dies.
These agreements can supplement estate planning by clarifying each partner’s property rights and expectations. While they don’t replace wills and powers of attorney, they provide additional legal framework for the relationship.
Cohabitation agreements are particularly valuable when partners have significant disparate wealth, own property together, or have complex financial arrangements.
Planning For Both Partners
Both partners in unmarried relationships need complete estate plans. Each person should have their own will, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives protecting the other partner.
Don’t assume one partner’s plan is sufficient. Each person needs documents authorizing the other to act on their behalf and leaving property to each other.
Protecting Your Partnership
Unmarried couples must be proactive about estate planning because the law won’t protect your relationship automatically. The documents you create substitute for the protections married couples receive by default.
We work with unmarried couples regularly to develop comprehensive estate plans that honor their relationships and protect their partners. Your commitment to each other deserves legal recognition through proper planning even when the law doesn’t automatically provide it. Take action now to create the wills, trusts, and powers of attorney that give your partner the rights and protections you want them to have, regardless of what state law would provide without your planning.