It affects taxes, survivorship, power of attorney and healthcare proxy, property separation at divorce, all sorts of things. Common law only kicks in after 7 years and there are requirements on it, you can’t just start filing that way because you feel like you want to. It’s not fun hoping your SO doesn’t get in a car accident, because that’s the last time you might see them.
okay that’s very different to here, common law here is much earlier and it happens (at least for taxes) whether you want it to or not after that time period. although you can of course not file together, until they catch you I guess.
everything I dealt with for death and healthcare, nobody gave a shit about seeing a marriage certificate, we just put each other’s names down and that was that. never had any issues. never had the talk with a lawyer about POA etc as I did not update that during the relationship.
the idea that an insurance company or something could choose to refuse to acknowledge your gay partner is scary, though. I can see why not having legal proof would be a huge risk.
Common law marriage also can be a problem in probate. When I lived in Texas I got married specifically because we were worried about my husband’s estranged family contesting our joint property if he were to pass. Or contesting our PoA in the case of medical decisions.
It affects taxes, survivorship, power of attorney and healthcare proxy, property separation at divorce, all sorts of things. Common law only kicks in after 7 years and there are requirements on it, you can’t just start filing that way because you feel like you want to. It’s not fun hoping your SO doesn’t get in a car accident, because that’s the last time you might see them.
okay that’s very different to here, common law here is much earlier and it happens (at least for taxes) whether you want it to or not after that time period. although you can of course not file together, until they catch you I guess.
everything I dealt with for death and healthcare, nobody gave a shit about seeing a marriage certificate, we just put each other’s names down and that was that. never had any issues. never had the talk with a lawyer about POA etc as I did not update that during the relationship.
the idea that an insurance company or something could choose to refuse to acknowledge your gay partner is scary, though. I can see why not having legal proof would be a huge risk.
Common law marriage also can be a problem in probate. When I lived in Texas I got married specifically because we were worried about my husband’s estranged family contesting our joint property if he were to pass. Or contesting our PoA in the case of medical decisions.
yeah, I have heard that even in clearly defined wills/POAs, there’s still room for contest, so this is more evidence to support