Financial implications of not being married

[tearocket]

Can someone please explain to me like I am 7 years old, what the benefits of being married are over just having a will?

Very long term cohabiting relationship, wills in place, joint mortgage owners, both beneficiaries on the others pension.

Do we still need to be married to provide further protection?

Worth remembering married people cost less to insure. My husband’s car insurance dropped by a third when he finally got round to telling them we were married.

You can have a low key no frills marriage too.

As said. IHT is a biggie but also you are not always seen as next of kin in an unplanned admission scenario even with power of attorney. If you split up you don’t have any right to anything other than joint assets.

Also some pensions you don’t have rights ti especially standard dependent monthly benefit ones

Martin Lewis did a very good tv show about this. Might be available on ITV X.
All about the inheritance implications, etc.

Anyway, off the back of watching it, we are forming a civil partnership next month. Just us, the registrar and two witnesses. I’m also autistic and the thought of standing up in front of anyone at a ceremony was terrifying. The registrar who did our notices last week said we don’t have to make any speech with a civil partnership. Just confirm everything and sign forms.

She did mention that people sometimes get confused between civil partnership and civil ceremony. The latter being a wedding in a register office (rather than a religious ceremony, etc) so you are husband and wife in that case rather than partners and still make vows, so can be a bit less low-key. (Sorry if I’m explaining something you already know, I just found it interesting)

I was puzzling the other day when researching previous owner of my house for historical purposes that his daughter had one child, then got married years later and then registered a second child just after of the same name and I even wondered if the first had died but now all is made clear due to this thread on MN and checking the point - the parents must have re-registered the birth after their later marriage.

Although you're still meant to re-register there's actually zero need now.

Previously even if an unmarried man was on the birth certificate he didn't have automatic PR. It had to be applied for, but if he married the mother and they re-registered then he got it. Some family trusts and inheritances were only valid for legitimate children.

Whereas now an unmarried man on the birth cert has PR and children born to unmarried parents can inherit from both.

This! Civil partnerships can be super low key. We didn't exchange rings or have photos, and we haven't changed names. We were asked to be there 20 minutes before hand to check paperwork of our witnesses and to check we were both happy to go ahead etc. We did that and had the "ceremony" in 15 minutes and we were out before we were even meant to start!

Stop it. Google throws up all sorts of crap

From hotel recs to asking about brands of nappies it is far better to ask for other people's input.

May not apply to you but there’s also the marriage tax allowance - if one is a basic rate taxpayer and the other doesn’t pay tax, the non-taxpayer can transfer some of their personal allowance to the basic rate taxpayer, reducing the amount of tax they pay.

Being married can also simply speed things up in the event the worst happens. It’s easy to prove you’re married, whereas it can take longer to prove entitlement to things if you’re unmarried.

My DH and his siblings paid a chunk in IHT because they inherited their Dad’s fairly modest house and estate via his partner, who died 18 months later.
Hell of a hefty cancellation fee on their 2020 wedding which never happened.

*MikeRafone" · Today 10:41

"
Xenia
you get £325 + £150 for property left to children"

Sadly not if a house if the value of mine. This is yet another one of the reasons those who earn over £70k (top 10%) have the highest tax burden in 70 years whilst until last year most people were paying less than before. It is a kind of stealth tax, similar to not getting a tax personal allowance any more, no 30 free hours etc etc that hits higher earners as the state seems to hate us.

It doesn't for IHT. The value of the 50% is still included in any IHT calculation regardless of whether if passes to a surviving joint owner.

It’s not about next of kin which has no legal force. Your DC would inherit if their dad died without making a will. OP, you need to find a good solicitor and ask all these questions and find a solution which works for you and your partner.

Why would your DC’s be homeless? They’re working adults.

One question: if we are not married and have a joint mortgage, tenants in common and have only £200k equity each (the rest belongs to the bank) then is there any need to get married to avoid IHT before we reach £325 equity each? Also already having wills leaving 100% to each other.

If both of your estates under £325k there’s no iht anyway. If either of you own over £325k then you are opting to pay more tax rather then get married.

("Homeless" in the sense of their home where they live would be sold for IHT. As my sons are indeed working adults I am sure they would cope but in the USA as a single woman my IHT tax free allowance would be US$13m and in the UK is only £325,000. In Sweden and China I would have no IHT to pay. It is just another of the many UK stealth taxes we have suffered - those on over £70k (the top earners))

If you were in the US, you’d have big bills for property tax and healthcare insurance and Sweden is a high tax country. Lots of complaints from higher UK earners but they actually do pretty well compared with other countries.

Sounds like a low key civil partnership will be a great option for your needs OP.

I’m not entirely clear, but I think it depends if you have children to leave your property to.

Apologies if this has been said but whilst there are advantages to being married for IHT please make sure your children inherit. If you are married and you die leaving virtually everything to your DH and then he remarries unless he has a new Will then everything goes to her potentially nothing to your DC. You may think your DH would never do this but it happens over and over.