The wills and probate sector has shared more responses to the government’s A Fairer End to Relationships consultation, which closed last week.
While the overall view is positive, the responses come with caveats that changes must be fair and offer choices for cohabiting couples.
STEP, the professional body for trust and estate practitioners, welcomed the “long overdue” reforms, but warned marriage and civil partnership must remain legally distinct.
In its consultation response, STEP said it supports a needs-based framework but warned a poorly defined regime would increase litigation rather than reduce it.
In a statement accompanying the release of its response, STEP said it supports the aim of clearer, more accessible rules that protect vulnerable families and preserve the distinct status of marriage and civil partnership but calls for a framework that is clear, objective and tightly defined, so reform reduces disputes, financial and emotional distress, rather than adding to them.
Emily Deane TEP, technical counsel and head of government affairs at STEP, said: ‘Too many couples still believe common law marriage protects them and find out only on separation or bereavement that it does not.
“Reform is well overdue, but it has to be built on certainty. The rules on who qualifies must be clear, objective and tightly defined, or they will create disputes rather than settle them. Statutory reform should be seen as a backstop.
“It is not a substitute for making a clear, professionally drafted will, or for taking advice on how cohabitation affects property, pensions and tax affairs.”
Read STEP’s full response to the consultation.
The Estate Registry, which provides estate planning and end-of-life admin services, said reforms must balance modern family life with consent, clarity and informed choice.
Chief operating officer Howard Enders said: “As an organisation that deals extensively with estate planning, we have previously highlighted the need to update the UK’s legal and financial position to reflect modern patterns of family life and property ownership.
“The Estate Registry believes reform deserves serious consideration – but that any changes must be accompanied by clarity, public education and genuine informed choice.
“Cohabitating couples frequently believe they have similar financial rights to those who are married when it comes to separation or, sadly, a bereavement. Under the law in England and Wales that is not the case and many discover too late that a share of assets and pensions are not automatically inherited by the remaining partner.
“The reality is that family structures and financial arrangements have changed significantly, while the legal framework governing property, succession and relationship breakdown has not always kept pace.
“The central question is not simply whether cohabiting couples should receive greater protection. It is whether people will understand when those protections arise, what they mean and how they can affect their property and financial position. Informed choice should, therefore, be at the heart of any reform.
“There is a compelling case for protecting people who may otherwise suffer significant financial disadvantage following the end of a long-term relationship, particularly where one partner has made substantial non-financial contributions or sacrificed earning capacity to support a household or children.
“At the same time, people who deliberately choose not to marry or enter a civil partnership may have made that decision because they do not want the legal consequences associated with formalised relationships. Any automatic framework must therefore make its boundaries, consequences and available opt-outs exceptionally clear.”
