Often times we end up writing articles that try and explain the kind of mess you can get into if you don’t have a Will. So often, the complexities of the law can be avoided completely if you write a Last Will and Testament. Common-law marriage is a case in point.
According to some statistics, about one in six people co-habit without getting married; clearly there are many reasons for this which we won’t get into, but if ever there was a case for preparing a Will, a common-law marriage is it. I will now attempt to distill the vagaries of the law across different jurisdictions.
In the UK, the law is simple and unequivocal; ‘common law marriage’ has no recognition in law and unless you have both made Wills neither of you will have any automatic rights to inherit from the other. The intestacy rules dictate what happens if you die without a valid Will and they make no provision whatsoever for a ‘partner’; it is only a ‘spouse’ who will automatically inherit. You may have co-habitated for 50 years, but in the eyes of the law, you are complete strangers if one of you dies without a Will (you may be able to make some claim based on a “dependency”, but this would require a challenge to the default distribution of the estate). Incidentally, if you do inherit money or property from an unmarried partner, you are not exempt from paying inheritance tax, as married couples are.
In Canada, it is slightly more complicated. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Territories do recognize common-law relationships, however, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and PEI do not recognize common-law partnerships and surviving partners will face the same challenges as those described for the UK (above).
The US also has very complicated State specific laws which I can’t go into here. I have spent literally hours looking through State laws to find a good explanation that would fit into this blog, but it cannot be done. In summary there is a common misperception that if you live together for a certain length of time (seven years is what many people believe), you are common-law married. This is not true anywhere in the United States. There are 11 states that recognize the existence of a common-law marriage, and this allows the surviving partner to inherit if there is no Will. For the other States there is no protection for surviving common-law partners.
In short, if you are cohabiting, in a “domestic partnership”, living in a putative Marriage (one that is simply implied) or a common-law situation, you absolutely must write your Will to protect the rights of your surviving partner. You should also prepare a Power of Attorney and Living Will because depending on your jurisdiction, your common-law spouse may have no rights if you were ever to be incapacitated.
Fortunately, a Last Will and Testament, Financial Power of Attorney, Healthcare Power of Attorney, Living Will and Advance Directives can all be created through the online tools at www.legalwills.ca , www.uslegalwills.com and www.legalwills.co.uk. The whole process takes no more than a few minutes and can protect the rights of your partner. It is a serious issue that should not be put-off.
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