What is the benefit of being married if...

[LinkyPlease]

Advance apologies if this is the wrong place to post.

Just wondering what the benefits are if being married if you have children if:

• You both earn, similar-ish amounts and both work PT to look after younger ones
• you have joint mirror wills leaving each other everything
• you bought your property together and are named as 'joint tenants' so regardless of who put in what you get the same out if you split and sell
• you have your own personal documents signed and dated by both declaring that in the event of a split you would like all assets to be split as though you were married with the exception of xyz, and define that there too (fairly minor stuff)
• you are each named as the beneficiary of each others pension

I know I wouldn't have the legal final say if DP was on his deathbed, but that aside is there anything else significant we are missing out on?

I see stuff about how important it is to be married, esp with children in the family, but we're not keen on marriage at the moment so have set up the above as our safety net, so interested in what additional stuff marriage would bring

Thanks!

Legal NOK isn't really a thing, odds are you'll be fine in a medical treatment situation even without being married.

With the other stuff you have in place, basically it's all within the gift of the other person to revoke and there's not much the non-revoker could do about it. Either of you can dissolve a JT whether the other likes it or not, you can change your wills and pensions and as a cohabitant it's a lot harder to challenge a will, and your agreements about what would happen in the event of a split aren't legally binding (tbf they wouldn't be if you were married either, if you're in England and Wales).

Whereas when you get married, you're giving the other person more of a claim on your assets, whether you change your mind about it or not. Of course, you might think this is a bad thing and a reason not to get married! IHT is definitely a good reason to marry though.

Out of interest, why are the patriarchal connotations of marriage a problem but the homophobic, othering history of CP isn't?

Ah, I was recalling a court challenge to the lack of availability of civil partnerships for heterosexual couples - but had forgotten the court challenge was unsuccessful!

@VickieCherry Pension benefits are paid to the nominated beneficiaries or other recipients in accordance with the pension fund rules (which is why they won't always pay to unmarried partners even if nominated, as pp have said the rules may only allow benefits to be paid to married partners). They don't form part of the estate, so nothing to do with the will.

The court challenge was successful. But they still aren't available to heterosexual couples. Parliament are yet to decide how to stop them being discriminatory. They may become available, or maybe as there is same sex marriage now...CPs could be scrapped! Hopefully the former.

Why not just call anything that doesn't involve religion a CP? They take place at a registry office don't they?

Thanks, dirty!