Counseling Unmarried Couples A Guide to Effective Legal Representation

Counseling Unmarried Couples will give you the tools you need to serve the legal needs of this growing segment of society. Beyond summing up the legal rules and writing competent agreements, lawyers serving this market need to integrate and interpret the legal rules in a realistic and comprehensive manner. This book will enable you to provide holistic and effective advice to unmarried couples, whether same-sex or opposite-sex, enabling them to make wise decisions about their homes, their children, and their assets.

The fourteen chapters discuss everything that an unmarried couple is likely to encounter, including:

• Living apart, living together, and the option of marriage
• Covering their assets: debts, liability, and insurance
• Tax consequences, liabilities, and benefits
• Real estate ownership and management
• Cohabitation and financial agreements
• The rules and practices of parentage
• Illness and disability planning
• Estate planning concerns and practices
• Moving on: the substantive legal doctrines

Also included is a CD-ROM containing all the documents you'll need to represent these couples, from co-ownership agreements to co-parenting adoptions to sample wills.