Marriage may be a RELIGIOUS ceremony, but what are the resulting LEGAL rights couples receive once they wed?

Question

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Please list as many of the rights and responsibilities (contractual, financial, medical, etc.) given to married couples that are not available to unmarried couples in your jurisdiction. The answerer who is most thorough will receive the "best answer."

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Answer 1

when I was critically ill in the hospital I was allowed no visitors...my spouse was automatically exempt from this rule and spent every day at my bedside.....
we have rights of inheritance...nobody can overthrow our wills..there will be no contest of that...(not that anybody in our family would)
we,effective next year, in canada, will have income splitting..allowing our incomes to be combined so that a higher pension earner and lower pension earner get a better break
we get other tax breaks equal to every straight couple.
we have the rights of adoption
we have the right to marry people outside of our country and bring them into canada as our spouse
our medical and dental plans allow us to use both plans for benefit
I worked for a major airline for 31 years...my travel benefits extend to my spouse who can use them..and continue to use them if I should predecease him.
I belong to a post retirement airline club which will honor my spouse as a member , even if again I predecease him.
He has power of attorney over me ...if I should become medically ill ..he has the right to determine what steps if any should be taken to save or terminate my life...
Our bank allows us access to all the same sex privileges as any other bank (but they did this before marriage was legal--they wisely went for the gay population)..
I don't know this is a long list...as I think of more things I will put more on it :)

Answer 2

Actually, the ceremony means nothing legally unless you get the government papers. So, there are no such rights and responsibilities from a strictly religious ceremony.

As for a legal wedding:
insurance discounts / benefits
medical decisions
automatic joint property and inheritance
custody implications
alimony implications
college financial aid benefits
joint tax filing
lower standards for eligibility for government programs
basic right to a legally recognized union
couple skate (just kidding)

Answer 3

Insurance, life and health usually premiums are lower than 2 individual policies.
Taxes- I can actually give my spouse a tax free gift of several thousand dollars each year. Tax free inheritance upon death.
Major medical decisions ( I know my family would pull the plug after 5 minutes...my hubby would wait at least 7)
Property rights..the state I live in is a community property state, which means we are co-owners of all property we own.
Survivor rights to pensions and SS income

Answer 4

Married couples:

have the right to combine their assets and have them legally protected from other members of either of their families.

have the right to make life or death medical decisions in regards to the spouse.

have the right to file a joint income tax return and be in a lower bracket than a single person.

have the right to be covered under the spouses medical and dental insurance. In my state by law the spouse has to be at least a 50% or higher beneficiary on all Life Insurance policies held.

Connecticut passed a civil union law in 2005 and gives same sex couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples in regards to state taxation, municipal taxation, family leave benefits, hospital visitation and notification, state public assistance benefits and court privileges. However, it isn't marriage so they do not have the right to make life and death deicisions for their partner and that is wrong and needs to be amended by making marriage legal for anyone regardless of gender.

Answer 5

Tax benefits
Healthcare benefits
Medical, as in a spouse my be allowed more visitation rights and access to information.
Spousal privilege in court
Division of property
Retirement benefits, I hope.

The contractual obligation, as I see it from our vows, is to look after one another and care for one another, be faithful to one another, until we are separated by death.

Answer 6

A purely religious marriage is not a legal marriage unless it complies with all the civil legalities.
Therefore a purely religious marriage confers no legal rights.

Answer 7

talk approximately happening a tangent. don't be daffy who reported you are able to not vote or get a speedy trial. Its people such as you that tick others off , so who of their outstanding recommendations might trust you. persist with the difficulty and not lie approximately issues that no person even has stated.

Answer 8

I think in some states as soon as you cohabit, you have most of the same responsibilities / liabilities but not the priviledges

Answer 9

Community property, financial support (alimony)

Answer 10

-insurance
-legal write to spouses earnings after death
-can't testify against eachother in court (something like that...I've seen it on law and order)