Tips For Every Common Law Couple

Common law couples lack certain protections that ceremonially married couples receive and, as a result, must take additional steps to protect themselves. Here are some tips that any common law couple should follow:

• A will is essential as intestacy may not favor the common law spouse and cause the estate to pass to other relations that were never intended to inherit. For those that want maximum protection, a living trust created years before death can control the distribution of assets better than a will with the added benefit of being harder to challenge in court.
• Create a document which declares that one spouse wants the other to have power of attorney in certain circumstances as well as detailing the duties and duration of the power.
• Draw up a living will that clearly states the end of life wishes of a spouse and a health care proxy document that grants the power to make health care decisions.
• Make sure that retirement and insurance policies list the other spouse as the beneficiary of the plan at death and make sure that they any preexisting plans are amended to name the current spouse.
• Search federal and state laws to determine eligibility for spousal benefits and other favorable benefits. Many options that are available to ceremonially married couples may not automatically apply to common law couples but may still be awarded if requested.

See Judy Martel, 5 Essential Life Documents For Common Law Couples, Forbes, June 26, 2015.