From
Your Perspective:
Financial planning for nontraditional couples
Financial planning
for nontraditional couples
Couples who marry have many privileges — legal, financial, and otherwise — that don’t apply to unmarried couples. Yet there could be any number of reasons that you and your long-term partner might not get married, even if you consider yourselves to be just as much a family as any married couple. It could be that you can’t get married under the current law. Or it could be that you and your partner don’t wish to marry for whatever reason.
At the same time, it’s absolutely vital that each of you plan for your future financial security. And if you and your partner plan to stay together, it makes sense to include each other in your plans.
But you may need more creative strategies and more careful planning to achieve many of the same results that married couples can take for granted. The effort is worth it, though, if it can help you and your partner achieve your shared financial goals.
Many long-term partners who live together and share their
lives, financial and otherwise, can be described as “nontraditional.” They
include same-sex couples, retirement-age couples who prefer
not to marry for financial reasons, and couples who choose
not to marry for cultural reasons or personal preference.
