Therefore, married couples typically need more life insurance than their single counterparts. The purpose of life insurance is to provide a source of income for your children, dependents, or whoever you choose as a beneficiary, in case of your death.

A living will is the best way to let the medical community know what your wishes are regarding artificial feeding and other life-prolonging measures.īack To Top Do married couples need life insurance? The health care proxy (sometimes called a 'medical power of attorney') allows your partner to speak on your behalf when it comes to making decisions about medical care, should you become incapacitated. Should you become incapacitated, the durable power of attorney will allow your partner to sign papers and checks for you and take care of other financial matters on his or her behalf. Real property and personal property can be put into this form of ownership. Joint ownership of property with right of survivorship is a way of ensuring that property will pass to the other joint owner on one joint owner's death.

If there are no wills, the unmarried surviving partner will probably be left high and dry.Ĭonsider owning property jointly. If both partners make out wills, the chances are that the intentions expressed in the wills will be followed after one partner dies. The following steps are particularly important for couples who are not married: A husband and wife who have jointly owned assets will generally be affected less by this problem than an unmarried couple.īack To Top What estate and financial planning steps are particularly important for

Have the right to manage each others' finances in a crisis.

But unless you have taken care of some legal paperwork, you may not have the right to do so. If your life partner loses consciousness or capacity, someone will have to make the decision whether to go ahead with a medical procedure. Have the right to speak for each other in a medical crisis. Married couples who do not have a will have their state intestacy laws to back them up the surviving spouse will inherit at least a fraction of the deceased spouse's property under the law. Specifically, unmarried couples do not automatically: unmarried, there are several major issues to consider. When it comes to legal rights and being married vs. Legal Rights: What are the major differences between married and unmarried couples?

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