I just saw someone else post asking why someone would want to get married, so I’m curious to see the opposite. Within the U.S., you can pretty much marry whoever you want as long as they are of age, and many legal benefits come with that. I personally know a couple who have been together for 20 years, and we live in a state that doesn’t recognize common-law marriage, so they are now considering it. Are there other situations where it simply makes sense to not get married?
When it comes to the legal definition of marriage, it doesn’t just come with legal rights, it comes with legal responsibilities.
The most notable one is sharing of assets. There’s a reason divorce lawyers exist, as well as the trope of messy divoerces. In the most basic scenario, divorce requires all marital assets to be split evenly, and that can be very difficult, since many assets CAN’T be split at all. You can’t split a house, for example, but you’re probably not interested in continuing to live together after a divorce, so who gets it? You’re probably both pretty emotionally attached to it. Unless the parties can agree to one getting the house, and the other getting a bunch of other stuff to make up for it, the house will probably have to be sold, so they can split the sale price instead. And kids don’t split evenly either, as you may have heard from Solomon.
In short, unless the two parties trust each other pretty thoroughly, or truly intend to stay married permanently, or are willing to retain lawers and draw up a pre-nuptual agreement to prepare for a divorce, pre-emptively, marriage carries a fair bit of personal risk.