Preferencing Nonmarriage in Later Years

Many couples in later life ponder whether marriage provides more legal benefits than drawbacks, and that is the central question of this article. It considers the advantages and disadvantages that marital status conveys to older couples across different legal regimes, focusing especially on Medicaid eligibility to finance long-term care and applicable provisions pertaining to asset transfers and post-mortem recovery of benefits. But the article also considers the treatment of spouses in determining Social Security benefits, income taxation of those benefits and of residential dispositions, employment-based retirement plans, testamentary protections, surrogate decision-making, health insurance, and general indebtedness.