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It’s June and a young (or even not so young!) woman’s thoughts turn to weddings! Dresses and tuxedos, confetti and champagne and all the trimmings. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Gay men and lesbians won’t be getting married in June this year – but we will be becoming registered civil partners from 21 December.
It’s a long overdue and almost revolutionary change to our society. From December onwards, we will be able to celebrate our unions in the same way as straight people who get married in a registry office. Same sex couples will be standing up and telling the world at large that they are a social unit and that they deserve the same rights and respect as any other married couple.
But there are a few things that people should consider before they decide to register. First of all, this isn’t something to rush into. Just because, for the first time, we can do it doesn’t mean that we should do it. It’s a serious commitment and nobody should get registered just because they think it provides a good excuse for a party! After all, if it doesn’t work out, you will have to wait a year before you can dissolve it and you could well find you’ve got a huge legal bill at the end of it.
Talking of legal fees, if you are wealthy and your partner isn’t, or if you inherited family wealth that you want to keep in your biological family, you may find it worth the expense of drawing up a pre-civil partnership agreement. These are basically pre-nuptials – while they have no standing in UK courts as regards straight marriage, they are likely to be taken more into account in civil partnership dissolution proceedings.
You should also remember that any will you may have made in the past will be revoked automatically when you register. You may want to ask your solicitor what you should do now. And while considering a new will, you should also remember that estate planning to mitigate inheritance tax, once the preserve of the married couple, can now work to the advantage of civil partners also. If you need advice on this aspect, my company, Isis Financial Planners Limited, can help.
But while we need to think of the legal and financial side of things, let’s not forget that what this is really about is joy and celebration. At last, gay men and lesbians in the UK are as ‘normal’ as anybody else. And we’re entitled to our big day too!
Check our Civil Partnerships page
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