I've been through this a few times. My mother lived with a guy for over 20 years; he was effectively my step-father. Unfortunately they never did anything legal despite gentle prodding. When he died suddenly of a heart attack ... Well ... Effectively my mom got nothing, not even enough for the funeral since the assets went to his estranged drug addict son who promptly spent it all.
A family friend has a woman living in her basement because despite her having having lived with a guy for 40 years they never married - and he's now brain dead due to a motorcycle accident. His family took all the money and locked her out of everything including the house with her stuff in it and anything to do with his care. On Jan 4, 2012, at 12:00 PM, Maureen <[email protected]> wrote: > > Having just spent the last three weeks dealing with the aftermath of > the death of a partner to whom I was not married, I can attest that > having a legal standing would have been most helpful. Even though I > am executor of his estate and had durable power of attorney for both > finances and health care, there was still a lot of cases where I had > prove my standing because I wasn't the "wife". To say nothing of how > excluded I felt by certain members of his family. > > It's a touchy situation - regardless of how it is handled. > > On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 9:09 AM, Cameron Childress <[email protected]> wrote: >> But then should marriage status even be considered when it comes to >> government benefits? The right the issue a DNR order? Taxes? Insurance? >> Perhaps that should be handled legally, outside of marriage. Strictly >> within *relationship* status - able to be assigned to anyone you wish. >> >> -Cameron > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:345148 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
