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Aug 02, 2026
Unmarried couples often build their lives together in the same ways married couples do. They may share a home, combine expenses, raise children, operate a business, and care for each other during an illness. Louisiana law, however, does not automatically give an unmarried partner the same inheritance and decision-making rights it gives a legal spouse.
Living together for many years does not, by itself, create a marriage in Louisiana. Without a carefully prepared estate plan, the person you consider your closest family member may have little legal authority when you become incapacitated and may inherit nothing when you die.
Estate planning for unmarried partners in Louisiana can help close many of those gaps.
An Unmarried Partner Does Not Automatically Inherit
When someone dies without a valid will, Louisiana’s intestate-succession laws determine who inherits. Louisiana Civil Code article 880 provides for descendants, ascendants, collateral relatives, and a qualifying surviving spouse. It does not include an unmarried romantic partner.
That remains true regardless of:
- How long the couple lived together
- Whether they shared household expenses
- Whether friends and family considered them married
- Whether one partner helped maintain the other partner’s property
- Whether one partner provided care during an illness
If a person dies without a will, individually owned property may pass to children, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, or other relatives. The surviving partner may receive nothing.
Louisiana’s community-property rules also generally apply to legally married spouses, not unmarried couples. Property acquired by one partner does not become jointly owned merely because the couple lives together or uses the property together.
You can learn more about the default inheritance rules in our discussion of what happens when someone dies intestate in Louisiana.
A Will Can Provide an Inheritance
A valid Louisiana will allows each partner to name the other as a legatee and specify what the surviving partner should receive. A will may leave the partner particular property, a percentage of the estate, or the remaining estate after other gifts are made.
A will can also name the partner as executor. That gives the partner an opportunity to oversee the succession, protect estate property, address debts, and carry out the instructions in the testament after being confirmed by the court.
The will should address questions such as:
- Should the partner receive the home outright?
- Should the partner be permitted to live in the home for life or for a particular period?
- Should the partner receive cash, investments, or business interests?
- Should particular property ultimately pass to children or other relatives?
- What happens if the partners are no longer together when one of them dies?
- Who should inherit if both partners die in the same event?
Louisiana’s forced-heirship rules may limit how much property can be left to a partner when the testator has a forced heir. That issue should be considered when deciding whether to make an outright gift, establish a trust, or provide the partner with a right to use property.
A will only controls property that forms part of the succession. It does not override a valid beneficiary designation or automatically change the ownership of jointly held property.
The Shared Home Requires Special Attention
The home is often the most important asset for an unmarried couple. It can also create one of the largest risks for the surviving partner.
If the home is titled only in the deceased partner’s name, the survivor does not acquire ownership merely because both partners lived there or contributed to household expenses. Without an estate plan, the deceased owner’s relatives may inherit the property.
If both partners own the home, the surviving partner continues to own that partner’s share. The deceased partner’s share, however, passes through the deceased partner’s succession. The survivor may suddenly own the home with the deceased partner’s children, parents, siblings, or other heirs.
Depending on the couple’s goals, the estate plan might:
- Leave the deceased partner’s ownership interest to the survivor
- Place the property in a trust
- Grant the survivor a usufruct or right of habitation
- Give the survivor time to remain in the home before it is sold
- Give the survivor an option to purchase the deceased partner’s interest
- Provide that children receive ownership after the surviving partner’s death
- Use life insurance or other assets to balance gifts to the partner and family
A plan using usufruct and naked ownership can sometimes allow the surviving partner to use the home while preserving its ultimate ownership for children or other beneficiaries.
Simply adding a partner to a deed may constitute a present transfer of ownership and can create tax, creditor, financing, and separation-related consequences. The deed and estate plan should be reviewed together before ownership is changed.
Beneficiary Designations Can Transfer Important Assets
Certain assets pass according to a beneficiary designation rather than a will. These may include:
- Life insurance
- Retirement accounts
- Annuities
- Payable-on-death accounts
- Transfer-on-death investment accounts
- Employment benefits
Naming a partner as beneficiary can provide funds without waiting for the completion of a succession. Those funds may help the survivor pay expenses, maintain the home, or replace income.
Beneficiary designations must be reviewed carefully. A will generally does not override the beneficiary listed on an account or policy. An outdated designation could send the asset to a former partner, relative, or other unintended recipient.
Each partner should confirm the primary and contingent beneficiaries and coordinate those designations with the will or trust.
A Mandate Can Provide Authority During Incapacity
Inheritance planning addresses what happens after death. A mandate addresses who can act while the principal is alive.
Without written authority, an unmarried partner may be unable to access accounts, pay expenses, manage property, communicate with insurance companies, or handle legal matters for an incapacitated partner.
A properly drafted contract of mandate can authorize the partner to perform financial and legal acts. Depending on the principal’s needs, the authority may include:
- Managing bank and investment accounts
- Paying household and medical expenses
- Handling insurance claims
- Managing real estate
- Filing tax returns
- Operating a business
- Applying for benefits
- Hiring professionals
- Accessing digital accounts
- Buying, selling, leasing, or mortgaging property
Louisiana requires certain powers to be granted expressly. A general form may not give the partner all the authority needed for the couple’s particular property and responsibilities.
Healthcare Authority Should Be Expressly Granted
An unmarried partner should not assume that doctors will automatically treat the partner as the person authorized to make medical decisions.
La. R.S. 40:1159.4 establishes an order of priority for people who may consent to medical treatment when a patient cannot act. A person acting under a valid mandate that specifically authorizes healthcare decisions receives statutory priority. Without that authority, an unmarried partner may have to rely on the lower-priority “adult friend” category after higher-priority relatives are found unavailable, unwilling, or unable to act.
A healthcare mandate can expressly authorize the partner to:
- Communicate with physicians
- Receive protected medical information
- Consent to or refuse treatment
- Select healthcare providers and facilities
- Make placement and care decisions
- Access medical records
The healthcare mandate should be coordinated with a living will or advance healthcare directive. A living will addresses life-sustaining treatment when the person has a terminal and irreversible condition. The healthcare mandate identifies who can make broader medical decisions when the principal cannot.
Separate medical-information authorizations may also help the partner receive information and communicate with providers before a full incapacity determination becomes necessary.
Funeral and Burial Authority Should Not Be Assumed
An unmarried partner does not automatically have priority to control funeral, burial, or cremation arrangements.
Under La. R.S. 8:655, a person may designate who will control the disposition of remains through a notarial testament or a separate written and notarized declaration. Without such a designation, the statute gives priority to a qualifying surviving spouse and then specified relatives.
An unmarried person who wants a partner to control those decisions should make the designation formally and ensure that the partner can locate the document immediately. Funeral decisions are often required before a succession is opened or the original will has been reviewed.
Trusts Can Balance a Partner’s Needs With Children’s Interests
Unmarried couples may have children from prior relationships or family property they ultimately want their descendants to receive. Leaving everything outright to a partner may protect the survivor but provide no assurance that the remaining property will later pass to the first partner’s children.
A properly structured trust can provide support for the surviving partner while preserving remaining assets for children or other beneficiaries. The trust might allow the partner to live in a home, receive income, obtain funds for health and support, or use other property during the partner’s lifetime.
Trust planning can also establish who manages the property and what happens if the surviving partner becomes incapacitated. Our discussion of why trusts may belong in an estate plan explains several available uses.
The Plan Should Address the Possibility of Separation
Marriage and divorce can trigger particular legal rules. The end of an unmarried relationship may not automatically remove an ex-partner from a will, mandate, trust, life insurance policy, retirement account, or healthcare authorization.
Each document should state what happens if the relationship ends. After a separation, both former partners should promptly review:
- Wills and trusts
- Financial and healthcare mandates
- Beneficiary designations
- Property titles
- Joint accounts
- Business agreements
- Funeral designations
- Emergency contacts and medical authorizations
Couples who jointly own a home or business may also benefit from a written agreement addressing each person’s ownership, contributions, expenses, buyout rights, and what happens if the relationship ends.
Field Law Can Help Protect Unmarried Partners
Unmarried couples cannot safely rely on Louisiana’s default inheritance and decision-making rules to protect each other. The plan must create the authority, inheritance rights, and housing protections that marriage would otherwise provide automatically.
Field Law helps unmarried couples throughout Louisiana coordinate wills, trusts, mandates, healthcare documents, beneficiary designations, and property ownership. We can structure a plan that protects the surviving partner while also addressing children, family property, and the possibility of future changes.
Learn more about our estate-planning services for unmarried couples or contact Field Law to schedule a consultation.
