Legal Benefits
As a legal contract, marriage presents many legal rights and privileges to the parties to the contract, the husband and wife. According to the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), there are over one thousand federal statutory provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges. (As previously noted, any federal rights or privileges associated with marriage are only available to male-female married couples, not same-sex couples. Individual states determine how the rights and privileges they offer to married couples are distributed.) In light of these rights and privileges, an attorney licensed in family law can help you, as a married couple, understand your rights and how those rights may change upon the death of a spouse or the dissolution of the marriage by divorce.
Here is a brief summary from the GAO of some of the federal rights and privileges impacted by marital status. The list in total is lengthy and overwhelming; this further underscores the value that married couples can find in consulting with attorneys licensed in family law about the rights afforded to them by marriage.
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Rights to a deceased spouse's benefits, including:
- Social Security pension, veteran’s pension, compensation for deaths connected to service for the federal government
- Medical care, nursing home care, housing and even educational assistance
- One-time $100,000 benefit to spouses of any public safety officials killed in the line of duty
- Continuation of employer-sponsored health benefits
- Special benefits for spouses of coal miners killed by black lung disease
- Renewal and termination rights to deceased spouse's copyrights or water rights
- Payment of wages and workers compensation benefits after worker death
- Control over disposition of a deceased spouse’s body and/or organs, if the deceased spouse left no instructions as to his/her wishes before death
Rights to benefits while married:
- Protection from being required to testify against your spouse in court proceedings (known as the marital confidences privilege and the spousal testimonial privilege);
- Recently improved benefits for spouses of military personnel during deployment;
- Compensation on a per diem basis to spouses of federal civil service employees when transferred;
- Sponsorship of a spouse for United States citizenship (provided the sponsoring spouse is a United States citizen);
- Increased benefits for married participants in certain federal programs; such programs may include Veteran's Disability, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Disability payments for federal employees, Medicaid, property tax exemption for homes of veterans deemed as disabled, as well as income tax deductions and credits.
Joint and family-related rights:
- Joint parenting rights, such as access to children's medical or educational records;
- Family visitation rights for the spouse and children, such as to visit a spouse in a hospital or prison;
- Next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions or filing wrongful death claims;
- Intervention to stop Domestic Violence;
- Access to "family only" services, such as reduced rate memberships to clubs or organizations or residency in certain “family only” neighborhoods;
- In certain federal jobs, preferential treatment in hiring decisions for spouses of veterans;
- Indian Health Service care for spouses of Native Americans (in some circumstances);
- Property may transfer between spouses tax-free (even upon death);
- Threats against spouses of particular federal employees are considered a federal crime;
- The ability to file jointly for bankruptcy;
- Domestic Violence protection orders;
- Funeral and bereavement leave in the death of a spouse or a spouse’s relatives;
- Provision for joint adoption and foster care;
- Provision for joint tax filing;
- Legal status with stepchildren;
- Making spousal medical decisions should the ill spouse be unable to make those decisions;
- Right of survivorship of custodial trust;
- Right to change surname upon marriage; typically a wife takes her husband’s surname, but an increasing number of married women choose to keep their maiden name;
- Right to inheritance of property.
This list of right is only a sampling; the federal and state laws governing how rights benefits are impacted by marital status are complex. An attorney licensed in family law can help you navigate these difficult issues and achieve the maximum level benefits available to you under the law.
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