Glastonbury estate planning lawyers offer comprehensive help to couples and singles of all ages. No matter what your family situation is, you need an estate plan to ensure that you have prepared for end-of-life issues and you need an estate plan to ensure that you have taken control over what you want your legacy to be. 
Although everyone needs an estate plan, making such a plan can be especially important if you are in a romantic partnership or life partnership, but you are not married to your partner.
Marriage confers legal advantages that come along with the recognition of your marriage by the state and by the federal government. While these legal benefits are not a big reason to get married, you do need to be more careful in making an estate plan to protect your partner if you opt out of the institution of marriage.
Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates can provide assistance if you are not married but you want to ensure that your partner is protected if something happens to you. Our Glastonbury estate planning lawyers have helped many couples to ensure that the fact they haven’t married won’t cause problems in case of illness, injury or death. Give us a call today to find out more about the assistance our firm can provide to unmarried couples in planning for the future.
How Glastonbury Estate Planning Lawyers Help Unmarried Couples
Glastonbury estate planning lawyers help unmarried couples to overcome the challenges that exist when trying to provide for and protect a romantic partner with whom there is no legal martial relationship. Some of these challenges include the following:
- Uncertainty in case of incapacity: If you become sick or hurt and you are not married to your partner, it is possible that visitation with your partner will not be allowed by the hospital or healthcare provider. The hospital or caregiver may also be precluded from providing updates on your condition to your partner, since your partner is not considered “family.” If you haven’t made a plan for who will make health care decisions and manage assets and you have become incapacitated, the court will need appoint someone to act for you– and that person typically won’t be you partner, due to the absence of an official legal relationship. This means that your life partner may not be able to see you when you are sick, nor will your partner be able to make medical choices or other decisions on managing your affairs… unless you make a plan to allow your partner to do these things.
- Laws on who will inherit won’t recognize your partner: If you don’t make an estate plan, intestacy law will specify who is going to inherit your wealth. Intestacy laws favor close blood relatives, such as spouses, kids, and parents. Since your partner doesn’t have an officially recognized relationship with you, he or she won’t inherit at all unless you used wills, trusts, pay-on-death accounts and joint ownership to specify that your partner should be the person to inherit.
- Estate tax could be assessed on a larger asset transfer: Married couples can leave an unlimited amount of money to each other. This is not the case for unmarried couples. If you have a large estate, your big estate is going to have to pay estate tax. Since the estate pays this, it reduces the value of the estate assets that should serve as an inheritance. You’ll need to work with Glastonbury estate planning lawyers to try to find ways to reduce your potential tax bill.
These are just some of the challenges that you may need to address if you are not married but want to leave assets to your partner or otherwise ensure that your relationship is recognized in the eyes of the law.
Contact Glastonbury Estate Planning Lawyers
Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates has the experience necessary to help you make a comprehensive estate plan. Our goal is to help ensure that you have done everything possible to protect a partner to whom you are not married. By using legal tools like trusts, you can ensure that you have the necessary control not only to leave assets to your partner but also to give your partner the chance to make life-and-death decisions for you.
To find out more about how Glastonbury estate planning lawyers can help you if you’e not married but you’re in a committed relationship and want to protect your partner, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 860-548-1000 or contact us online today for help from our knowledgeable legal team. Give us a call today to get your plans in place.
Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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