Families are trending away from marriage; in 1996, 56% of Americans were married and 3.7% were cohabiting unmarried. By 2023, the married share had dropped to 46% while cohabiting had risen to 9%. People now prioritize friendship and job satisfaction over marriage and parenthood.
With fewer people opting for federal and state protections of marriage, it’s worth asking whether estate planning can help bolster any of the privileges that unmarried couples are foregoing.
Estate planning is limited to closing the gap when it comes to mimicking parental protections, healthcare decision-making, and inheritance. Unmarried individuals must continue to forego income tax savings (where there is a disparity in incomes), immigration privileges, employment protections, estate tax deferrals, and many other rights are simply not conferred on unmarried individuals. These require an act of Congress, not a lawyer.
What Documents Can Fix
In Illinois, these documents can replicate some of the legal safety net that marriage provides automatically.
- Will: a will changes who inherits your property from the legal defaults.
- Trust: a trust protects your beneficiaries’ inheritance from being lost to a beneficiary’s divorce, medical bills, or their own exorbitant spending, and keeps your estate out of probate court when you die.
- Beneficiary designations: These change who inherits your property from the legal defaults and avoids probate.
- Durable financial power of attorney: Gives a person of your choosing the ability to manage finances, pay bills, handle accounts if you’re incapacitated
- Healthcare power of attorney: Mirroring the default authority a spouse has, this will give the person of your choosing the ability to communicate with healthcare providers if you cannot communicate for yourself.
- HIPAA authorization: Without this, healthcare providers can legally exclude your partner or chosen family from your medical information
- Joint titling with right of survivorship: This enables your real property to pass automatically to the surviving partner(s)
- Cohabitation agreement: This document governs shared property, expenses, and what happens if the relationship ends
What No Document Can Fix
- Social Security: survivor and spousal benefits
- Federal tax filing: joint status, brackets, and deductions
- FMLA: job-protected leave to care for a partner
- COBRA: no right to continue a partner’s employer health insurance
- Veterans’ and military benefits: education, medical care, burial rights
- Immigration: no spousal sponsorship pathway
- Workers’ compensation death benefits: financial support following the loss of a spouse
- Spousal privilege in court: marital communications protection
A complete, well-drafted estate plan closes a portion of the practical gap for most people. The remaining gap is concentrated in federal programs that are structurally tied to marital status.
Most unmarried couples have none of these documents in place, leaving their partner with essentially no legal standing in the moments that matter most. The government built a legal system that rewards marriage with 1,138 privileges and offers unmarried couples almost nothing by default. You can wait for Congress to fix that, or you can build your own safety net now.
Estate planning won’t get you Social Security survivor benefits or FMLA leave, but it will make sure your partner can visit you in the hospital, inherit your home, and manage your affairs if you can’t. That’s not nothing. For most couples, it’s everything that matters.
Explore how much you could save. Use the Marriage Tax Savings Calculator below.
A strong legal plan protects more than assets. It protects the people you care about most. Bielski Chapman, Ltd. helps individuals, couples and families across Chicago create thoughtful strategies that reduce risk, prevent conflict, and build long-term security. Schedule your consultation today.
