breathemusic
Active member
Hi all,
I did a quick search and wasn't really able to find any sort of comprehensive thread that really lists out all of the various legal documents to consider in one place. I just found a bunch of threads with individual topics like child custody agreements, and house stuff, etc.
I was hoping that for those who are experienced with dealing with these issues I could try to put together a fairly comprehensive list of all the ducks to get in a row when a polycule plans to cohabitate together. Obviously there will be some variation from state to state (sorry international peeps, I'm in the US, so I'm looking at it from that perspective) so in the end I will definitely consult a lawyer when the time comes, but I'd like to at least be able to do some of the research and prep work myself!
Here's what I've got so far:
Relationship stuff between my partner and I:
-Living Will and/or Will
-Power of Attorney
-beneficiary on various policies like insurance, etc.
-Is there something else needed that would allow things like visitation in a hospital, etc.?
Group owned/shared property:
-Cohabitation agreement (maybe)
-LLC for ownership of house possibly?
-buy/sell agreement
-discussion/negotiation on level of entangled finances such as bank accounts
Am I missing anything or is there any other documentation/steps that people recommend looking into?
For my particular scenario, my partner is already legally married. The 3 of us, along with a very good friend who isn't poly, just a friend, are all looking at buying a house together, so part of what we need to consider is who all should own vs. some owning and some renting. If we all own, do we decide to create an LLC? Even so, we need to draw up potential personal loan paperwork in the even that parties put down different amounts of cash toward the downpayment so that things eventually even out. We need to have an agreement in place to address what must happen if any party wants to ever move out and the other parties need to buy out their share of the house, etc. From the more personal side, since I will never be legally married to my partner I want to make sure that he still has the ability to make important decisions if something happens to me medically. I'd want to make sure he was included in my will, etc. We would also need to figure out how things would work between his wife and I if anything ever happened to him. I'm not really in a huge rush on this since we're all just now in the discussion and planning stages on house stuff, and I'm in no rush to have a "commitment ceremony" or handle the other legal stuff on the relationship side until we either live together or have gotten "engaged." But I at least want to start thinking about it and have a general idea of the path forward!
From a state law perspective, we'll most likely be living in MD once all of this happens.
I did a quick search and wasn't really able to find any sort of comprehensive thread that really lists out all of the various legal documents to consider in one place. I just found a bunch of threads with individual topics like child custody agreements, and house stuff, etc.
I was hoping that for those who are experienced with dealing with these issues I could try to put together a fairly comprehensive list of all the ducks to get in a row when a polycule plans to cohabitate together. Obviously there will be some variation from state to state (sorry international peeps, I'm in the US, so I'm looking at it from that perspective) so in the end I will definitely consult a lawyer when the time comes, but I'd like to at least be able to do some of the research and prep work myself!
Here's what I've got so far:
Relationship stuff between my partner and I:
-Living Will and/or Will
-Power of Attorney
-beneficiary on various policies like insurance, etc.
-Is there something else needed that would allow things like visitation in a hospital, etc.?
Group owned/shared property:
-Cohabitation agreement (maybe)
-LLC for ownership of house possibly?
-buy/sell agreement
-discussion/negotiation on level of entangled finances such as bank accounts
Am I missing anything or is there any other documentation/steps that people recommend looking into?
For my particular scenario, my partner is already legally married. The 3 of us, along with a very good friend who isn't poly, just a friend, are all looking at buying a house together, so part of what we need to consider is who all should own vs. some owning and some renting. If we all own, do we decide to create an LLC? Even so, we need to draw up potential personal loan paperwork in the even that parties put down different amounts of cash toward the downpayment so that things eventually even out. We need to have an agreement in place to address what must happen if any party wants to ever move out and the other parties need to buy out their share of the house, etc. From the more personal side, since I will never be legally married to my partner I want to make sure that he still has the ability to make important decisions if something happens to me medically. I'd want to make sure he was included in my will, etc. We would also need to figure out how things would work between his wife and I if anything ever happened to him. I'm not really in a huge rush on this since we're all just now in the discussion and planning stages on house stuff, and I'm in no rush to have a "commitment ceremony" or handle the other legal stuff on the relationship side until we either live together or have gotten "engaged." But I at least want to start thinking about it and have a general idea of the path forward!
From a state law perspective, we'll most likely be living in MD once all of this happens.