Remarriage or Live Together?

29 Sept 2022 · 1 min

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In this advisory monologue, Jerry Taylor addresses the financial and legal implications of marrying, remarrying, or simply cohabiting later in life. He outlines five key considerations: (1) Estate planning – marriage can automatically grant a spouse a share of the estate regardless of the will, affecting how assets are distributed. (2) Long‑term care – a prenuptial agreement does not shield a spouse from responsibility for long‑term care costs. (3) Family home protection – to prevent heirs from evicting a surviving spouse, a life‑estate can be granted, allowing the spouse to remain in the home after death. (4) Social Security benefits – remarriage typically disqualifies divorced or widowed individuals from receiving benefits based on a former spouse’s record. (5) Alimony – remarriage usually ends alimony payments, removing that source of income. He concludes by inviting viewers to comment on whether marriage, remarriage, or cohabitation makes the most sense financially, and to follow his channel.

Chapters

Here's the question for today. If you're single and you meet someone later in life, does it make the most sense financially to get married or remarried or just live together? Here are some things you should be thinking about. Number one is your estate plan. Getting married can have a huge effect on your estate plan. Even if you don't include your spouse in your will, in most states spouses are automatically entitled to a part of your estate. Another consideration is long-term care because a prenuptial agreement will not keep a spouse from being responsible for long-term care costs. Next, what about the family home? If you own the home, you're probably not going to want your spouse evicted by your heirs after you die. One solution to that would be to give the surviving spouse a life estate in the home. How about Social Security? If you're divorced or widowed and you're receiving benefits from a former spouse, if you remarry, you are generally not entitled to continue to receive those benefits. Then there's alimony. If you divorce and remarry, you'll likely lose that source of income. So tell me in the comments what you think. Marriage, remarriage, or just live together? And then follow.