Caroline Cook, a senior associate in the Private Client team at Wedlake Bell, discusses how cohabiting couples are not always entitled to the same tax breaks and inheritance rights as spouses and civil partners.

More and more couples these days are choosing not to enter into marriage or civil partnership, but will very often have children, shared assets and have cohabited long-term in the same way as many spouses and civil partners. However, the similarities do not always extend to the law.

In this article for Private Client Adviser (www.privateclientadviser.co.uk), published on 26 November 2015, Caroline Cook, a senior associate in the Private Client team at Wedlake Bell, discusses how cohabiting couples are not always entitled to the same tax breaks and inheritance rights as spouses and civil partners, and the steps such couples could consider to preserve their position on life and on death.

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