Happy Sunday!

Today I wanted to talk about common law marriage and estate planning.

It’s probably not something that everyone needs to know about and think about, but it’s interesting, so we’re going with it. :)

First, common law marriage IS recognized in Washington. Here the fancy term is “committed intimate relationship.”

There’s a bunch of factors that go into whether or not one is created, and generally, if you live with someone and agree to share everything together, you’re in one.

This is important, because once that happens, everything you accumulate begins to be characterized as community property – each person owns 50%.

This is pretty much exactly like marriage.

And that is also where the similarities end.

When it comes to estate planning, a common law “spouse” is entitled to ZERO assets of their deceased partner under the law.

What does this mean?

You need to have an estate plan in place (including beneficiary designations) to make sure your partner gets everything you want them to get.

This is critically important, because if you don’t, the deceased partner’s half will go to their family – and that gets REALLY messy when you have real estate, etc. involved.

So, yes, at the end of the day this is just another example of why it’s important to have an estate plan.

That’s it!

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Christopher Small
Owner
CMS Law Firm LLC

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