Many unmarried domestic partners create estate planning documents, often naming each other in various capacities (e.g. executor, agent under a power of attorney, beneficiary of an estate), and later marry.

If so, those couples should review their documents, as they may need to be updated as a result of the marriage. This applies to same-gender couples, who until recently were not permitted to marry.

However, same-gender couples have been permitted to marry for several years, including in Pennsylvania since May 20, 2014.

Married couples have a special survivorship status under the law, called “tenants by the entireties”; thus, upon marriage, couples who owned real estate together or separately before they were married need to look at deeds for that real estate, and may wish to discuss with an attorney retitling the deed to both names as spouses.  

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Jeffrey Bellomo, Esq.