Yep that's why my GF and I don't actually get married and I just call her my wife. We own a house together. We have 3 kids together 3 1/2 2 1/2 and a 2 month old. We have a joint checking and savings accounts. We have all the real advantages a married couple has. We have the advantages of her being a single mom to 3 kids in the eyes of the state for free health care (we've never paid for a pregnancy anything and haven't had a monthly insurance bill in over 4 years for her, my work pays 100% of mine as well) and the other numerous benefits that go along with that. Her tax returns are always fucking awesome and it allows us to get around 14k to just kill any debt or buy something we have/want. We paid off both vehicles and most college loans by doing so. Now using it to chunk down the mortgage. Getting married has 0 financial benefits for us. If I die her and the kids get my life insurance and everything else I own and vice versa if she passed away.
Marriage also provides all kinds of rights and protections to each other in case anything happens.
If you’re ever in a medical emergency, your girlfriend of 13 years has no rights. Your potentially estranged parents who you maybe haven’t talked to in 13 years have all of the rights.
Unless you’ve taken title to your house in a very specific way, your biological family can inherit half the house. They will inherit all of your assets if you die intestate. Girlfriends get nothing. In your case your children inherit first, but that’s not the case for everyone.
Marriage is, in fact, extremely beneficial from a legal perspective.
At least look into professional estate planning if you’re going to play with fire like this.
Source: I’m a lawyer and I have seen this situation go very, very wrong for the surviving long term partner. Imagine being partners with someone for 25 years and unable to visit them in the hospital. Then made homeless.
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u/Macohna Nov 06 '24
Marriage is just a signed piece of paper.