Domestic Partnerships, Civil Unions, and Cohabitation May Allow the Same Benefits as Traditional Marriage

In our increasingly socially free society, more and more couples are skipping the aisle and altar and moving in together. Now, couples can live together without a marriage license and avoid the social condemnation that would have isolated them 50 or 60 years ago. When couples live together, they are able to be emotionally supportive of each other, and can share in intimacy. A UCLA professor of social psychology writes that intimacy can cause a person’s body to function better, and allows your immune system to function more effectively. Thus, even without marriage people living together may enjoy this particular benefit.

As well, intimacy causes your body to produce more antibodies. A multitude of studies have shown that those who are involved in healthy, intimate relationships live longer. As well, a couple can share in the emotional aspects of life together when they are living together. Often emotions can drive a person’s immune system, and cause health to improve.

While these emotional and physical benefits are free to all who want to take advantage of them, often couples balk at moving in together permanently because of the lack of the perceived legal benefits. Yet with the same-sex marriage rights campaigns on the rise, more and more states are allowing domestic partners and civil unions, a variety of benefits my be available. In some states these benefits often extend to heterosexual couples as well. The number of unmarried couples who live together has increased seventeen-fold in the past 50 years, according to research by The National Marriage Project.

As well, more than half of all adults now admit that they cohabited with a girlfriend or boyfriend at one point in their lives. In 2008, 6.2 million households included people in cohabiting relationships. To some people, a benefit to cohabiting rather than marrying is the perceived lack of commitment. Couples who are fearful of being tied down and want the ability to easily extract themselves from a relationship without a messy divorce are avoiding marriage. However, as the amount of cohabitations excels, so do the amount of rights for cohabiting couples in certain states. Therefore, these people should beware. A cohabitation agreement might help. In essence, when it comes to child custody , palimony or property division, you may end up in court even without a marriage. Talk to a Los Angeles family law attorney at Claery & Green today with any questions you have.