Making Medical and Financial Decisions for Your Unmarried Partner
If you ever become unable to make your own health care decisions or manage your own finances—because of injury, serious illness, or advanced age—you probably want your partner to step in and take care...
View ArticleDebt and Credit Issues for Unmarried Couples
All couples benefit from clearly agreeing who will pay for the rent, car installments, or groceries. When you live together, you must also decide whether to pool your money and the property you buy...
View ArticleCredit Discrimination Against Unmarried Couples
A credit grantor generally will provide credit to anyone who is a good financial risk. A person with no apparent source of income, with a history of long periods of unemployment, who regularly pays...
View ArticleSharing Your Last Name With Your Unmarried Partner
Normally, each partner in an unmarried couple keeps his or her own last name. It’s easy, legal, and creates few, if any, practical problems. Occasionally, however, members of an unmarried couple want...
View ArticleTax Issues for Unmarried Couples
In most cases, being unmarried does not negatively affect the amount of taxes you pay. In fact, some unmarried couples pay less in federal income taxes than do married couples. In addition, some...
View ArticleSocial Security Benefits for Unmarried Couples
Unmarried couples that live together are often at a disadvantage when it comes to Social Security benefits—especially if one partner stays at home caring for children or running the...
View ArticleRetirement Plans of Unmarried Couples
For many people, the bulk of their wealth when they retire will be sitting in one or more retirement plans. These valuable assets provide security to the retiring worker, of course, and can also...
View ArticleHow Living With an Unmarried Partner Affects Your Public Benefits
People who receive public benefits often worry that they will be cut off if their partner moves in. If you receive benefits based on your financial condition and a physical or mental condition—aid to...
View ArticleHousing Discrimination Against Unmarried Couples
Most landlords are interested in your money, not your morals. As long as you pay rent on time, keep the rental clean, and don’t fight with the neighbors, they don’t care in which beds you sleep. There...
View ArticleWhen Unmarried Couples Move Into An Apartment or Rental Home Together
If one of you is renting a house or apartment, and your partner plans to move in, it's essential that you are clear as to whether you are both renting the place as cotenants, or whether you are the...
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Contract for Unequal Ownership of a House by an Unmarried Couple
If one partner contributes substantially more to the down payment on a house than the other, that person may want to own more than half of the property. As with the Contract for Equal Ownership of a...
View ArticleAgreement for One Person to Move Into the Other's House and Become a Co-Owner
Sometimes when an unmarried couple decides to live together, one partner already owns a house and the other partner moves in. When this happens, issues of property ownership and how to deal with...
View ArticleMay House Sellers Discriminate Against Unmarried Homebuyers?
Few, if any, people selling a house will care about your marital status. But if a seller does refuse to sell to you simply because you aren’t married, you may have little or no legal recourse in most...
View ArticleHow Unmarried Couples Can Co-Own or Take Title to a Home
When you buy a house with your partner, you must decide how you will own the property, or "take title.” Since in this context “title” is a synonym for “ownership,” your decision has huge and lasting...
View ArticleContract for Equal Ownership of a House by an Unmarried Couple
Any unmarried couple that plans to jointly own a house or other real property should prepare a written contract. When it comes to an investment of this size, it’s just plain nuts to try and wing it...
View ArticleHow to Establish Paternity
Paternity simply means “the state of being a father.” When an unmarried couple has a child, it’s essential that the father’s paternity be established as soon as possible after the baby is born. This...
View ArticleLegitimacy of Children Born to Unmarried Parents
Most states and the federal government have moved away from using the words “legitimate” and “illegitimate” in differentiating between children whose parents are married or not married. Some states...
View ArticleUnmarried Couples and Adoption
In addition to, or instead of, having your own biological child, you and your partner may want to adopt a child. Adoption is a court procedure by which an adult legally becomes the parent of someone...
View ArticleInheritance and Other Legal Rights of Children of Unmarried Parents
Children of unmarried parents have most of the same legal rights as children of married parents.Inheritance Rights of a Child of Unmarried ParentsYou can leave your property to anyone you want in a...
View ArticleHow Living Together Affects Custody of Children From a Prior Marriage
If you and your former spouse agree on custody, the court will normally ratify your agreement without considering the details of how you lead your life. A judge won’t know (or necessarily ask) whether...
View ArticleHow Living Together Affects a Parent's Visitation Rights
If a court grants you (or your former spouse) custody of the children, the other parent (or you) will be given the right to visit, unless the court believes that the noncustodial parent’s physical...
View ArticleHow Living Together Affects Child Support Payments
In every state, parents are required to support their children, whether or not the parents were married when the child was born. The federal Child Support Enforcement Act (42 U.S.C. § 651) requires...
View ArticleHow Living Together Affects Current Alimony Payments
Once your divorce is final and alimony decisions are made, either by the court or through your own agreement with your ex, can they be changed? Once again, it depends.If alimony is granted for an...
View ArticleFunerals and Other Final Arrangements of Unmarried Couples
Many people make burial or cremation plans informally, trusting their loved ones to take care of the details after death. This works fine if you’re confident your plans will be carried out. Sometimes,...
View ArticlePreparing a Basic Will
Many of us avoid the subject of death whenever possible. We don’t plan for what will happen to our property, who will care for our minor children, or even whether we’ll be buried or cremated....
View ArticleHow Unmarried Couples Can Avoid Probate
Probate is a court proceeding where your will is filed, assets gathered, debts and taxes paid, and property distributed to your beneficiaries. The process is time-consuming and expensive. Although the...
View ArticleEstate and Gift Taxes Affecting Unmarried Couples
Traditionally, the federal government has levied a tax on the net worth of property you leave at death (the estate tax) or give away while you are alive (the gift tax). In addition to federal taxes, a...
View ArticleLiving Together
When youre married, all kinds of laws affect your relationship. There are clear rules about each spouses financial responsibilities, parenting rights, property ownership, inheritance rights, and much...
View ArticleSame-Sex Common Law Marriage and Social Security Dependents & Survivor Benefits
Prior to the Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), married same-sex couples were not entitled to the same federal benefits as heterosexual married couples....
View ArticleWhat to Include in a Living Together Contract
A living together contract can be comprehensive, covering every aspect of your relationship, or it can be specific, covering only one transaction (such as a new house purchase). These contracts need...
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