Civil partnership vs Marriage

boomshakalaka

Was having a brainstorm with my BF about the differences between these two. I can't really find a conclusive answer online.

What does a marriage have that a civil partnership doesn't?

pwurple

There are a lot of differences. Mainly regarding children, social benefits if one partner dies, and the status of 'the family home'.

http://www.marriagequality.ie/getinformed/marriage/faqs.html

TAPA2012

when you are married both parents have equal rights to make decisions regarding your children. When you are not married men have little to no rights over their own children in this country.

Peregrinus

Worth pointing out, in case there's any confusion, that while you can make a comparison betwen civil partnership and marriage you can never make a choice between them. As the law stands, same-sex couples can enter into civil partnership but not marry while opposite-sex couples can marry but not enter into civil partnerships. No couple gets to choose between the two.

whydoibother

My boyfriend and I are shoving 50 and we've been together for nearly 15 years, so now we are considering making things official.

Depending on the result of the Gay Marriage Referendum, we may or may not have the choice of getting married.

Our question is regarding inheritance. If we are able to get married, then we assume that our property will automatically be inherited by the one who survives, but if we can only get into a Civil Partnership, how does that work?

The link provided above is very useful but, having searched through it, I could not find any mention to inheritance

I am aware of the fact that we have the option of making a will, but we would rather either get married or enter a civil partnership.

Could anyone shed some light?

Thanks.

efb

Civil partnership affords the same inheritance rights to partners as Marraige does AFAIK

Peregrinus

efb wrote: »

Civil partnership affords the same inheritance rights to partners as Marraige does AFAIK

This. If you enter into a civil partnership, you will have the same inheritance rights from one another that the spouses in a marriage would have.

This doesn't mean, though, that you don't need to make a will. Lots of married couples make wills, and lots of civil partners will too. Civil partnership/marriage leads to a clear but inflexible set of rules being applied to determine who gets what on the death of a partner/spouse who has not made a will. But "one size fits all" rarely fits all very well. Everyone's circumstances are different, and the rules that apply on intestacy may not completely suit your circumstances, and you partner's.

whydoibother

Peregrinus wrote: »

This. If you enter into a civil partnership, you will have the same inheritance rights from one another that the spouses in a marriage would have.

This doesn't mean, though, that you don't need to make a will. Lots of married couples make wills, and lots of civil partners will too. Civil partnership/marriage leads to a clear but inflexible set of rules being applied to determine who gets what on the death of a partner/spouse who has not made a will. But "one size fits all" rarely fits all very well. Everyone's circumstances are different, and the rules that apply on intestacy may not completely suit your circumstances, and you partner's.

Hello Peregrinus,
thank you for your answer. Since neither of us have children, and if inheritance rights are the same as for a married couple, then I can't see the point in making a will? Both of us come from large families so it is true that we have many nephews that could inherit from us, but in that case I believe the opposite would be true and should we like one of our favourite nephew or niece to inherit then we should make a will to him or her. Otherwise, as common sense would dictate for me, it is the spouse who inherits, or am I wrong? From what I have observed, I can give you an example of a situation that happened in my partner's family.
His uncle died and left the house to one of the daughters, but since the mother of this daughter was still alive, the will was not valid because the house also belonged to her, so the wife/mother naturally inherited the house, which she then left to her eldest son. This way, because the father's wife was still alive, although separated, but not legally from the father, the daughter could not inherit the house and it passed onto the mother. This is what I have observed and it seems to me that if the spouse is alive then priority is given to the spouse. Am I wrong?
Thanks again.

pwurple

The easiest thing is to make it absolutely crystal clear in a will. Before we had children, myself and my husband's will was a two-liner as well.. each of us inheriting from the other. It was to prevent any confusion from our siblings or parents. You never know what people expect, assume or expect.

Even wills can be contested later, but if there is no will, it can be a lot muddier. Save hassle, it's very easy to do now.

whydoibother

pwurple wrote: »

The easiest thing is to make it absolutely crystal clear in a will. Before we had children, myself and my husband's will was a two-liner as well.. each of us inheriting from the other. It was to prevent any confusion from our siblings or parents. You never know what people expect, assume or expect.

Even wills can be contested later, but if there is no will, it can be a lot muddier. Save hassle, it's very easy to do now.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.
Yes, I guess I will have to agree with all of you regarding the will.
Thanks again.

Peregrinus

The problem is not really what happens when the first spouse/civil partner dies. With no will, all that partner's property will go to the other partner, which presumably is what a will would have provided anyway. (If that's not what a will would provide - if you want to leave some money to the cats' and dogs' home, or to your godchild, or whoever - then obviously you need a will.)

The real issue arises when the second partner dies. The entire estate, including what was inherited from the first partner, will then go to the second partner's family - parents, siblings, nephews and neices, whoever. Or, if the surviving partner remarries/repartners and is survived by their new partner, it will all go to the new partner. The first partner's family kin will get nothing, since they are not related to the second partner.

That may suit you fine, in which case, good. But a lot of couples would be unhappy with that. Particularly if either partner has inherited anything signficant from their own family, they might wish to think that when they are both dead it will go back to the family from which it came.

A fairly common arrangement is that both partners make wills saying, in effect, if I am the first to die then all my property goes to my partner, but if I am the second to die, then my property is divided into shares for my next-of-kin, and for my late partner's next-of-kin. If you want something like that, you need to make wills.