Marriage Is a Starting Point, Not a Finish Line
When the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land in 2015, it was a landmark moment. For same-sex couples in Michigan and across the country, it meant legal recognition, hospital visitation rights, the ability to file taxes jointly, and access to spousal benefits that had been out of reach for decades. That mattered enormously, and still does.
But here’s what a lot of couples don’t realize: marriage gives you a legal status, not a legal plan. Being legally married means Michigan’s default inheritance laws will treat your spouse as your next of kin. It does not mean your wishes are documented, your assets will transfer smoothly, or your partner will have the legal authority to make decisions for you if you’re incapacitated. Without an Estate Plan, you’re relying on a system that wasn’t designed with your relationship in mind, and that can still fail you in very real ways.
This is especially true for same-sex couples who have spent years, sometimes decades, building a life together before marriage was an option. You may have property titled in one name, retirement accounts with outdated beneficiaries, or no documents at all because legal protections simply weren’t available when you needed them. Playing catch-up matters, and this post will show you exactly where the gaps are and how to close them.
What Michigan Law Does If You Have No Estate Plan
Michigan’s intestate succession laws determine what happens to your assets if you die without a Will or Trust. For married same-sex couples, those laws do recognize your spouse. If you die with no children, your spouse generally inherits your entire estate. If you have children from the marriage, your spouse still inherits a significant share. On paper, that sounds like protection.
The problem is that “your estate” only includes assets that actually go through probate. And a surprising amount of what people own never goes through probate at all. Your retirement accounts, life insurance policies, bank accounts with payable-on-death designations, and jointly titled property all pass based on beneficiary designations or titling, not your Will or Michigan’s inheritance laws. If your 401(k) still lists an ex-partner, a parent who has passed, or no one at all, Michigan’s intestate laws can’t fix that. That money goes wherever the beneficiary designation says it goes, or it ends up in a tangled legal mess.
There’s also the issue of what happens if both you and your spouse die simultaneously, or within a short period of each other. Without a documented plan, the courts decide where everything goes, and that process is public, slow, and expensive.
The Incapacity Problem No One Talks About Enough
Estate Planning isn’t only about what happens when you die. It’s also about what happens if you’re alive but can’t speak for yourself. A serious accident, a stroke, a sudden illness: any of these can leave you unable to make medical or financial decisions. And unless you have the right legal documents in place, your spouse may not have the authority to act on your behalf.
This is where same-sex couples can still face real, painful barriers, even with legal marriage. Without a Financial Power of Attorney, your spouse cannot automatically manage your bank accounts, pay your bills, or handle your investments while you’re incapacitated. They would have to go to court and petition for guardianship or conservatorship, which takes time, costs money, and is not guaranteed to go the way you expect.
Without a Medical Power of Attorney or Healthcare Directive, your spouse may not be the person a hospital turns to for treatment decisions. Yes, marriage gives spouses priority in many situations. But hospitals vary in how they apply those rules, situations can be ambiguous, and if there’s any conflict from family members who disapprove of your relationship, things can get complicated fast. A clearly drafted Medical Power of Attorney removes all doubt. It names your spouse explicitly, gives them the authority to act, and protects both of you from interference.
Think about a couple, married for ten years, where one partner is estranged from her family of origin. If she’s in a serious accident and has no Healthcare Directive, her spouse is theoretically next in line for medical decisions. But if her parents show up and challenge that authority, or if a hospital administrator is unfamiliar with how to handle the situation, the delay alone could have consequences. A properly executed Medical Power of Attorney eliminates that ambiguity entirely.
Adult Children, Blended Families, and the Complications They Create
Many same-sex couples bring children from previous relationships into their marriage. Some have children together through adoption or assisted reproduction. Some have adult children from prior relationships who may or may not have a warm relationship with their parent’s spouse. All of this creates complexity that marriage alone cannot resolve.
If you have children who are not legally your spouse’s children, Michigan’s intestate laws will not automatically provide for your spouse in a way that also protects those kids. Your spouse could inherit everything while your children from a previous relationship receive nothing. Or the reverse could happen. Without a Will or Trust that clearly spells out your intentions, a judge is making those calls based on default rules, not your actual wishes.
A Revocable Living Trust is often the best tool for blended families in this situation. It allows you to specify exactly what your spouse receives during their lifetime, what happens to the remaining assets when your spouse passes, and how your children from any relationship are provided for. You can structure it so your spouse is financially secure without inadvertently disinheriting your kids, or vice versa. That kind of precision simply isn’t possible through marriage alone.
Property and Asset Titling: The Silent Risk
How your assets are titled matters just as much as what you own. Same-sex couples who built lives together before marriage was legal often have property titled in one person’s name, because that’s how they had to do it at the time. Even after marriage, couples sometimes never update that titling, either because they don’t know it’s necessary or because no one ever told them it matters.
If your home is titled solely in your spouse’s name and they die without a Trust, that property goes through probate. That process is public, it takes months (sometimes longer), and it costs money. With a properly funded Revocable Living Trust, your home and other significant assets transfer to you without probate, without court involvement, and without delay. Trust Funding, which is the process of actually retitling assets into your Trust, is a step many couples skip, and it’s one of the most important parts of a real Estate Plan.
Joint tenancy with right of survivorship is another option for some assets, and it does allow property to pass directly to the surviving spouse. But it’s not always the right solution. Joint tenancy can create gift tax issues, it doesn’t give you control over what happens after the surviving spouse passes, and it doesn’t protect assets from creditors the way a Trust can. Your Estate Planning attorney can help you figure out which approach makes sense for each asset you own.
Beneficiary Designations: The Easy Fix That Gets Ignored
If there is one thing every same-sex couple can do today without an attorney, it’s this: review every beneficiary designation you have on file. Your retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s), life insurance policies, annuities, and bank accounts with transfer-on-death designations all pass based on who you named when you opened the account. Your Will cannot override them. Your Trust cannot override them, unless your Trust is actually named as the beneficiary.
Many couples who got together before 2015 named parents, siblings, or friends as beneficiaries because naming a same-sex partner felt complicated or legally uncertain at the time. Others have simply never updated their designations since they got married. This is one of those situations where an honest look at your paperwork can prevent a serious problem. Call your HR department. Log into your retirement account portal. Pull out your life insurance policy. Check the names on file. If they’re wrong, update them.
When you do update your beneficiary designations, also name a contingent beneficiary, which is the person who receives the asset if your primary beneficiary dies before you do. This small detail prevents assets from defaulting to your estate and going through probate.
Protections for Unmarried Same-Sex Couples
Not every same-sex couple wants to get married, or is ready to. Some couples have been together for twenty years and simply haven’t prioritized the legal paperwork. If that’s your situation, the stakes are even higher, because you have none of the default protections that marriage provides.
Without legal marriage, Michigan law treats your partner as a legal stranger for inheritance purposes. If you die without a Will, your partner receives nothing. Not the house you shared. Not the savings account you both contributed to. Nothing. Everything goes to your blood relatives according to Michigan’s intestate succession rules, even if you haven’t spoken to some of those relatives in decades.
For unmarried couples, a comprehensive Estate Plan is not optional. It is the only thing standing between your partner and a complete legal erasure of your relationship. A Will or Trust naming your partner, combined with updated beneficiary designations and Powers of Attorney, gives your relationship the legal weight that the state would otherwise refuse to recognize.
What a Complete Estate Plan Actually Looks Like
A solid Estate Plan for a same-sex couple in Michigan should include, at minimum, a Will or Revocable Living Trust that directs your assets to your partner and any children or other loved ones you want to provide for. It should include a Financial Power of Attorney naming your spouse or partner as your agent for financial decisions if you’re incapacitated. It should include a Medical Power of Attorney and Healthcare Directive naming your spouse or partner as your healthcare decision maker and documenting your wishes for medical treatment. And it should include a review and update of all beneficiary designations across every account and policy you own.
If you own a home or other real property, Trust Funding is critical. Your Trust only controls what’s actually been put into it. Working with an Estate Planning attorney to properly title your assets ensures your Trust does the job you created it to do.
The good news is that none of this has to be complicated. A well-organized Estate Plan for a married couple with straightforward assets can often be completed in a few weeks with the right attorney guiding you through it. The harder part is deciding to prioritize it. Years of fighting for legal recognition make it easy to assume that once you have the marriage certificate, you’re protected. You’re not fully protected until you have a plan.
Your Relationship Deserves Legal Protection That Actually Works
Legal marriage is a real and meaningful protection. It’s also a baseline, not a complete solution. For same-sex couples in Michigan, the combination of years spent outside legal recognition, complex family dynamics, and assets built before the law caught up to your relationship makes thoughtful Estate Planning more important, not less.
The couples who face the most painful outcomes are usually the ones who assumed everything was fine because they were legally married. Don’t let that be your story. If you’ve been meaning to put an Estate Plan in place and just haven’t gotten to it, now is the right time. Your partner, your family, and your future self will thank you for it.
