Unmarried and Committed. Are You Legally Protected?

There is no form to fill out when a relationship becomes serious.

No document arrives after five years together saying one partner is now the person who should speak for the other in a medical crisis. After 15 years, the deed to a home does not rewrite itself. And after 25 years, Michigan’s inheritance laws do not simply conclude that two people have been together long enough to be treated as spouses.

Yet somewhere along the way, two separate lives may have become one shared life.

There is a home. Joint expenses. Retirement plans discussed over dinner. Family traditions. Maybe children or pets. One partner knows the other’s doctors, medications, accounts, passwords, and wishes better than anyone else.

So, the question for an unmarried couple is not whether the relationship is real. It is whether the legal arrangements surrounding that relationship reflect the life they have actually built.

Michigan has not permitted couples to establish a new common-law marriage within the state since 1957, although Michigan may recognize one validly created elsewhere. Living together for a certain number of years does not gradually create the legal status of marriage.

But that is only the beginning of the conversation.

Unmarried couples have legal tools available to intentionally decide who can act for them, who receives their property, what happens to a shared home, and how a partner should be protected if illness, incapacity, or death changes the life they built together.

And those tools matter most when they work together.

WHAT CAN UNMARRIED COUPLES PUT IN PLACE?

There is no single document called an “unmarried couple estate plan.”

Instead, the plan may need to answer several different questions.

If you are hospitalized and cannot make decisions, do you want your partner speaking for you?

If you cannot manage your finances, should your partner be able to access accounts, pay expenses, or handle property?

If you die, what should your partner receive?

If you own a home together, can the surviving partner remain there?

And if your will, beneficiary designations, deed, and other documents point in different directions, which arrangement will actually control?

Attorney Andrew Potere says clients often wrestle with the question of who should be “in charge” and encourages people to ask, “Who will make decisions for me if I no longer can?”

For an unmarried couple, the instinctive answer may be my partner.

The purpose of planning is to make sure the legal answer matches it.

CAN A WILL PROTECT AN UNMARRIED PARTNER?

Yes. A will can direct property passing through your estate to an unmarried partner rather than leaving Michigan’s intestacy laws to determine who receives it.

Under Michigan’s intestacy laws, a surviving spouse has specific inheritance rights. When there is no surviving spouse, the estate passes to other heirs according to the statutory order.

An unmarried partner does not receive a spouse’s intestate share simply because the couple has been together for many years.

A will can therefore be particularly important when someone wants a partner to receive property that would otherwise pass through the estate to someone else.

But a will is not the entire plan.

Some assets transfer outside a will through beneficiary designations, joint ownership, or other arrangements. A will also generally addresses what happens after death. It does not solve every question about who can act during someone’s lifetime.

So instead of asking only, “Do we have wills?”, unmarried couples should ask a more useful question:

“Will everything we own actually go where we think it will?”

WOULD A TRUST MAKE SENSE?

For some unmarried couples, a trust can provide additional control over how property is managed and distributed.

The circumstances can vary significantly.

One partner may want the other to be able to remain in a shared home after death while ultimately leaving that property to children or other beneficiaries. Another couple may want greater continuity in managing certain assets if one partner becomes unable to do so.

A trust can provide detailed instructions tailored to those goals.

But not every couple needs the same arrangement. The appropriate structure depends on the couple’s property, finances, family circumstances, and long-term objectives.

Two couples can have equally committed relationships and need very different estate plans.

CAN YOUR PARTNER HANDLE FINANCIAL MATTERS FOR YOU?

A financial power of attorney can give a partner authority to handle financial and property matters covered by the document.

Consider how responsibilities develop naturally in a long-term relationship.

One person may handle the mortgage and utilities. The other may manage insurance. One may communicate with financial institutions or keep track of investments and taxes.

Those arrangements can work seamlessly until the person who normally handles something suddenly cannot.

The mortgage is still due. Insurance still needs attention. Accounts may need to be managed. Important financial decisions do not stop because one partner is seriously ill or injured.

Michigan’s Uniform Power of Attorney Act, which took effect July 1, 2024, governs financial powers of attorney. The law also makes specificity important because certain significant powers must be expressly granted.

HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS?

A carefully prepared will or trust does not necessarily control every asset someone owns.

Life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and certain financial accounts may allow an owner to name a beneficiary directly.

For unmarried couples, reviewing those designations can be especially important.

Perhaps an account was opened before the relationship began. An old beneficiary may still be listed. Maybe one partner assumes the other was named years ago but has never actually checked. Or perhaps both assume their wills determine where everything goes.

This is why estate planning should include more than preparing documents.

Make a list of your significant assets. Then ask what actually happens to each one if you die.

Who is named on the life insurance policy?

Who receives the retirement account?

How is the bank or investment account structured?

Does that answer agree with the will or trust?

A plan is stronger when those pieces point in the same direction.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE HOME YOU SHARE?

For many unmarried couples, this may be one of the most important issues to examine.

You may both call it our house. You may both contribute to the mortgage, improvements, maintenance, taxes, and the life built inside it.

But legally, important questions remain.

Whose name is on the deed? What ownership interest does each person have? How is ownership structured? What does each partner expect to happen if the other dies?

If one partner dies, will the survivor be able to remain in the home under the existing arrangements? Where does the deceased partner’s ownership interest go? Are there children or other beneficiaries whose interests also need to be considered?

There is no single answer that applies to every unmarried couple.

That is why reviewing the deed alongside the estate plan can be so important. The goal is to make sure the legal ownership of the home supports the future both partners believe they have already agreed upon.

KNOWING YOUR WISHES ISN’T LEGAL AUTHORITY

Your partner may know which doctor to call.

They may know where the insurance information is kept, which bills are automatically paid, who your accountant is, what medications you take, and exactly what you would want if you could not speak for yourself.

That knowledge can be invaluable.

But knowing what someone wants and having the authority or access necessary to carry it out are different things.

Kimberly Smith, Intake Specialist at Estate Planning & Elder Law Services, P.C., sees a related misconception in her work: people sometimes assume that simply being related to a client means they are entitled to information about that person’s estate plan. It does not.

For unmarried partners, the broader principle is especially worth understanding: a close relationship can establish trust. It does not necessarily establish legal authority.

That is why planning should consider more than who receives property after death.

A good estate plan should work in real life, not simply exist in a folder. For unmarried couples, that coordination can be particularly important because there may be fewer default legal protections to fill in whatever has been left unclear.

Atty. Potere notes that clients often want a plan that clearly identifies who is responsible and helps reduce the possibility of conflict among the people involved.

Clarity can protect the surviving partner. It can also help parents, siblings, children, and other loved ones understand that what happens next reflects the couple’s deliberate choices rather than someone’s interpretation of what they “probably would have wanted.”

YOUR INTENTIONS NEED DOCUMENTING

You already know who your partner is to you.

The person who shares the bills, knows the family, remembers the passwords you forget, takes the dog to the vet, and would be the first person you would want beside you when something goes wrong does not become more important because a legal document says so.

The document simply makes sure your intentions are not left for someone else to guess.

Estate Planning & Elder Law Services, P.C. can help unmarried couples look beyond individual documents and examine whether their estate plan, healthcare wishes, financial authority, beneficiary designations, and property arrangements work together to protect the life they have built.

You have already decided who you want beside you. Make sure your plan says the same. Call (888) PLAN-050 or email info@formyplan.com to start the conversation.