Family rights

[serra]

Hi,

My Finnish girlfriend and I (EU citizen), are registered as cohabiting partners (living together in Finland for more than 3 years).

I was wondering to know what are the difference between the cohabiting partners rights and a registered partnership (marriage) rights.

We are also going to have a baby in few weeks and I am not sure which condition might be the best for all of us.

Thank you very much for your time.

Serge

[Pursuivant]

Well, three things pop to mind:
- If you are married, you are the childs father. If you are not, the child has no father until an official process.
- If you die, your spouse does not inherit in any case, all goes to your child. However, if you have a will to your spouse, she pays tax as a random person off the street higher tax than a married spouse.
- There is a law regarding splitting property since 2011, but as there is no spousal right as in marriage, its more of a division.

[AldenG]

- If you die, your spouse does not inherit in any case, all goes to your child. However, if you have a will to your spouse, she pays tax as a random person off the street higher tax than a married spouse.

Serge, I don't know if you have paid any attention to the Swedish or English versions of the book or movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor) or the two sequels published so far by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. They have become internationally popular and hugely profitable. But most of this happened after his sudden death.

Larsson had a long-standing, essentially permanent, unmarried love relationship of 30+ years with the woman in his life, who was also an uncredited collaborator in his work. He died suddenly in 2004 of a heart attack. He did not have a will/testament, so his estranged brother and father inherited everything, including control of the entire series, even including the parts not yet written. They tried to give her nothing at all, claiming that she was entitled to nothing and they were entitled to everything, even though Larsson had cut them out of his life. (Gee, one wonders why he did that...)

Last I heard, she had the half-finished version of the next one in the series but isn't allowed to finish it or publish it, even though she was part-creator of the whole thing in the first place. Larsson's family owns the characters and anything anybody writes about them.

They eventually offered the woman a small fraction of the total but as far as I know the whole thing is still unresolved.

I'm pretty sure you don't have a multi-million-dollar estate but this episode shows how greedily and ruthlessly family can behave toward an avopuoliso, one of the Finnish words for an unmarried life partner. Life has taught me that if anything, people can sometimes be even more evil about amazingly little things than we already know they are about the big ones.

[Adrian42]

Larsson had a long-standing, essentially permanent, unmarried love relationship of 30+ years with the woman in his life, who was also an uncredited collaborator in his work. He died suddenly in 2004 of a heart attack. He did not have a will/testament, so his estranged brother and father inherited everything,

You are wrong when you claim "He did not have a will/testament". As a matter of fact, he did have a will that gave all his estate to a Swedish Communist party. Unfortunately that will was not valid under Swedish law.

If without a will everything goes to the wife or to the estranged father, or is divided between the two, depends on the applicable inheritance law. Even when married, the wife might in some cases get nothing.

A random example from Germany (whose laws I know best) showing more complications:
If they were living in Germany, married without kids, and with a will that his wife should inherit everything from him, then his estranged father would still have had the legal right to get 1/16 of his estate.

[AldenG]

I've seen that claim but I don't know the evidence for it. ( -- that an invalid will left his estate to a political party.) There's an awful lot of "they say / she says" flying in this case. In any case it's a lesson about something or other.

[Adrian42]

I've seen that claim but I don't know the evidence for it. ( -- that an invalid will left his estate to a political party.)

The public evidence for it is as good or bad as for the parts of the story you recounted here.

In any case it's a lesson about something or other.

The lesson is clear: If inheritance is an important question for you, then go to a lawyer.

One example:
If the OP makes a will, he can choose freely whether he wants his estate distributed based on Finnish inheritance law, or based on the inheritance law of the country whose citizenship he has (at least if he dies on or after 17 August 2015).

[Rip]

If you decide to get married consider if you want a prenuptial agreement or not (that is is the default 50:50 split in case of divorce or death what you want).

One additional benefit regarding marriage: the pension paid to a widow (based on the income of dead husband or wife) is only paid if the spouses were married.

One example:
If the OP makes a will, he can choose freely whether he wants his estate distributed based on Finnish inheritance law, or based on the inheritance law of the country whose citizenship he has (at least if he dies on or after 17 August 2015).

Doubt it effects the law on taxes due though.

[serra]

Thanks a lot for all the comments, very helpful!
I missed the "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" story, interesting to know!

One more question:

Beside deaths in the family, is there any other "additional benefit" in everyday life for being married?

for e.g. healthcare:
- Can we make important medical decisions for the other partner / child ?
- if I get very ill, is my partner allowed to visit me at the Hospital ?

In general, do child from a married couple have more/less/same rights?

Thank you again.

S.

[Rip]

In general, do child from a married couple have more/less/same rights?

After paternity has been established (automatic in the case of marriage) the rights would be same. You might want to check what does the nationality law of your own country say about this kind of situation. (Under Finnish law citizenship from birth (if it is based on (only) Father's citizenship) requires that either that the child is born in Finland or the father is the married to the mother)

Beside deaths in the family, is there any other "additional benefit" in everyday life for being married?

I am not aware of such, but I am also not sure such thing could not exist.

- Can we make important medical decisions for the other partner / child ?
- if I get very ill, is my partner allowed to visit me at the Hospital ?

If you register yourself to the hospital in conscious state, they seem to always ask you to give the name of next-of-kin. I must assume what you write then is respected.

If you end up there suddenly, then I really don't know. My guess is that if nobody would be contesting the next-of-kin designation it could be given to you (it might take more time, there is no registration of "common-law spouses" in this country) but you might find your position weak if the parents of sick spouse would have a different opinion about the matter. (Does anybody here actually know this?)

(and I would say that, especially when children are involved, thinking at least briefly what would happen in the case of sudden death of one of the parents is just prudent)

[Pursuivant]

I'd get married, but if you need to get some papers from your home countries for that, it may not be so quick.