When you’ve built a life with someone, you naturally want to protect each other. You share a home, make financial decisions together, and plan for the future as a team. But if you’re not married, North Carolina law doesn’t automatically recognize your partner as your legal next of kin. Without proper estate planning, unmarried couples face significant challenges that married couples simply don’t encounter.
The good news is that thoughtful planning can provide unmarried partners with nearly all the same protections and rights that marriage confers automatically. Understanding these planning tools and putting them in place ensures that you and your partner can truly look out for one another, no matter what life brings.
Why Don’t Unmarried Partners Have Automatic Rights in North Carolina?
North Carolina’s intestacy laws, which govern what happens when someone dies without a will, don’t include unmarried partners. These laws were written with traditional family structures in mind, so they distribute assets to spouses, children, parents, and siblings. If you die without estate planning documents, your partner could receive nothing, even if you’ve been together for decades and shared everything.
Similarly, if you become incapacitated without the proper legal documents in place, your partner has no automatic authority to make medical or financial decisions on your behalf. That authority would instead fall to your closest blood relatives, which could lead to conflict and prevent your partner from acting in your best interests during a medical emergency.
What Documents Do Unmarried Couples Need to Protect Each Other?
Creating a comprehensive estate plan requires several key documents that work together to protect both partners. A will forms the foundation of your plan, allowing you to name your partner as a beneficiary and specify exactly what assets you want them to receive. Without a will, state law determines who inherits your property, and your partner won’t be included.
Durable powers of attorney are equally important. A financial power of attorney allows your partner to manage your finances, pay bills, and handle banking matters if you become incapacitated. A healthcare power of attorney gives your partner the legal authority to make medical decisions on your behalf when you cannot make them yourself. These documents ensure that the person who knows you best can act for you during difficult times.
A living will or advance directive expresses your wishes about end-of-life medical care. This document guides your partner and medical providers when making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It removes uncertainty during already difficult situations and ensures your values are respected.
How Can Trusts Benefit Unmarried Couples?
Revocable living trusts offer unmarried couples several advantages beyond what a will alone provides. When you transfer assets into a trust during your lifetime, those assets can pass directly to your partner after your death without going through probate. This means faster access to funds and greater privacy, since probate is a public court process.
Trusts also provide protection if you become incapacitated. If you serve as trustee of your own revocable trust and later cannot manage your affairs, your successor trustee (who can be your partner) steps in immediately to manage trust assets. There’s no need to go to court or wait for someone to be appointed as your guardian or conservator.
For couples with significant assets or concerns about family members contesting their wishes, trusts add an additional layer of protection. They’re generally more difficult to challenge than wills and can include specific provisions that address your unique situation.
What Should Unmarried Couples Know About Property Ownership?
How you hold title to property matters tremendously for unmarried couples. In North Carolina, you can own property as tenants in common or as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. These designations determine what happens to property when one partner dies.
Tenants in common means each person owns a specific percentage of the property, and when one person dies, their share passes according to their will or, if there’s no will, to their heirs under intestacy law. This means your share wouldn’t automatically go to your partner.
Joint tenancy with rights of survivorship, on the other hand, means that when one owner dies, their share automatically passes to the surviving joint owner outside of probate. This option provides unmarried couples with protections similar to what married couples receive automatically, but you must specifically set up ownership this way.
The same principles apply to bank accounts, investment accounts, and other financial assets. Adding your partner as a joint owner with rights of survivorship or naming them as a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary ensures they can access these assets when needed.
How Can David Anderson, PLLC Help Wilmington Couples Plan Together?
Estate planning for unmarried couples requires careful attention to details that married couples might not need to address. Every goal, whether big or small, starts with a plan, and creating the right plan for your relationship ensures you can truly protect each other.
At David Anderson, PLLC, we understand that modern families come in many forms. We take time during initial consultations to understand your unique situation, your concerns about family dynamics, and your goals for protecting your partner. Our approach focuses on building relationships and providing clear, comprehensive guidance tailored to your specific circumstances.
North Carolina law creates obstacles for unmarried couples, but proper planning removes those barriers. From drafting wills and trusts to ensuring your powers of attorney accurately reflect your wishes, we help couples throughout New Hanover, Pender, and Brunswick Counties create plans that provide true peace of mind.
If you’ve built a life with someone and want to ensure you can care for each other no matter what happens, contact our Wilmington office to schedule a consultation. Together, we can create an estate plan that honors your relationship and protects your shared future.