Who You Are

Life partners. Without the marriage license.

You share a life — a home, finances, sometimes kids. You haven't married, by choice or circumstance. The law's defaults don't see your relationship at all. That makes a written plan less of a luxury and more of a requirement.

Who You Are

The law doesn't see you. Until you make it.

Marriage triggers an enormous body of automatic legal rights — spousal inheritance, hospital visitation, joint tax treatment, default healthcare decision-making, and dozens more. For unmarried partners, none of those defaults exist.

Without a plan, an unmarried partner has no legal standing to make medical decisions for the other, no automatic inheritance rights, and in many states, no automatic right to even be informed when the other is hospitalized. Family-of-origin gets first claim — even families that haven't been part of your shared life for decades.

Every protection that marriage grants by default, unmarried partners have to grant in writing. The good news: it's entirely doable. The required news: it has to be done.

What we focus on for you

Three things partners need in writing.

01

Healthcare access & authority

Healthcare directive, HIPAA, hospital visitation authorization, surrogate appointment — so your partner is the one in the room, with full information, when it matters.

02

Property & shared assets

Joint titling, trust ownership, cohabitation agreements, and beneficiary designations — so the home and the accounts pass the way you intend, not the way the state's default rules would send them.

03

Family-of-origin contingencies

Some families embrace the partnership; some don't. The plan should anticipate both, and protect your partner from the latter.

John and his wife at a wooden fence, Virginia countryside behind them.
The plan typically includes

A plan that makes you legal.

Plans for life partners are usually the most layered we draft. Every right that marriage would have granted automatically has to be granted explicitly, in writing — and updated every few years as state law and life circumstances change.

Building blocks

  • Revocable living trust(s)
  • Pour-over wills (or stand-alone)
  • Healthcare directives & HIPAA
  • Powers of attorney
  • Hospital visitation authorizations
  • Funeral & final arrangements
  • Beneficiary designations review
  • Joint property titling review
  • Cohabitation / partnership agreement (when desired)
  • Children's plan (when relevant)
  • Family communication strategy
  • 3-year review · included
"
John Heck was very friendly and spoke to me on a level that was easy to understand. His advice was helpful, and I am glad I got connected with John.
— Livie W. · ★★★★★ on Google
For unmarried partners

Let's give the law your relationship, in writing.

Book a discovery call → 571·56·TRUST571·568·7878
Free discovery call · 15 minutes · By appointment