(Almost) All the Advantages of Marriage
Marriage has changed. Historically, a husband was obligated to support his wife during his lifetime, and to provide for her after his death. On the other hand, his wife was his property ("chattel"), and anything she owned before the marriage became his property when they married.
Those days are gone. Modern marriage creates reciprocity. Both spouses have support obligations to each other, and to any children born during the marriage. Marriage also carries favorable tax status, insurance rates, and mutual property and estate rights.
But marriage isn't appropriate for everyone, and indeed, isn't legally available to everyone. Think of an abandoned spouse who was never divorced, or the senior citizen who will lose her widow's social security benefits if she remarries. Non-married couples can recreate or duplicate many of the advantages conferred automatically by a marriage ceremony. They may hold property together, maintain joint bank and securities accounts, provide for each other by will, trust, or power of attorney, make medical decisions for each other, in other words create a marital-type relationship. Here's how to...
Own your residence together.
Married couples take title to property as "tenants by the entirety." Which means that the parties own the property together and can't divvy it up (each owns an "undivided one-half interest"); if one spouse dies, the other acquires the whole property automatically, by operation of law.
In the absence of a marital relationship, two people may decide to acquire property, whether a house, a condo unit or shares of stock representing a cooperative apartment, as "joint tenants with right of survivorship" to accomplish the same goal as the married couple: to protect and provide for the surviving partner. Owning as "JTWROS" is useful not only to those in a committed non-marital relationship, but to family members as part of their estate planning, since the property passes to the survivor without having to go through probate proceedings. Like married partners, non-married partners may not sell or transfer without the consent of the other.
Share other assets.
If your mutual goal is to share your assets and your risks, you can own most assets jointly (often with right of survivorship) or you can designate each other "beneficiary" on life insurance policies, investment, retirement, and annuity accounts, and, in some states, bank accounts. The beneficiary will not acquire an ownership interest during the lifetime of the owner of the account or insurance policy, but will inherit the asset without a probate proceeding.
Do some basic estate planning.
Unlike married partners, non-married partners have no automatic right to inherit or to make health care decisions for each other. "Next of kin," whether beloved spouse or detested sister, will have rights that the devoted non-married partner does not. A non-married partner, for example, may be excluded from hospital visiting, and may not give consent to medical interventions. A simple will, health care proxy, living will or "declaration", and power of attorney can grant rights to the non-married partner that a spouse automatically has. Without a will, the deceased's non-married partner has no right to take jointly acquired, and jointly cherished, property.
Dissolve the "partnership".
Breaking up may be hard to do, but not so hard as getting a divorce. For the non-married partners who find themselves not talking to each other but still "related" through ownership of a house or securities account, separation may be as simple as closing a bank account or changing a beneficiary designation, or as complicated as a real estate closing, possibly with tax impact as well. How your personal decision to separate affects your jointly held property is an issue for you to discuss with your attorney.