About the Book

Book Description
Love isn't always followed by marriage!

What do you have in common with Oprah Winfrey, Stedman Graham, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Elton John and David Furnish? They, like you, are part of an unmarried couple and either legally can't or have chosen not to get married. But that does not mean that you can't share financial and other obligations with your partner. Money Without Matrimony answers the questions unmarried couples have when developing plans to secure their financial futures including:

• Pros and cons of merging your finances
• Determining ways unmarried partners should own property
• Strategies to ensure that your wishes will be carried out under all circumstances
• The importance of partnership agreements and other legal documents for unmarried couples

Authors and Certified Financial Planners!" Sheryl Garrett and Debra A. Neiman guide you and your partner through the necessary steps to protect each other from potential financial ruin in much the same way that federal laws help protect married couples. If you are one half of an unmarried couple, you owe it to you and your partners  financial future to read Money Without Matrimony.

Unknowns About Unmarried Couples
Fast Facts About The Largest and Fastest Growing Segment of the U.S. Population

• In the United States, there are currently about 11 million people living with a partner to whom they are not married, which includes both same-sex and opposite-sex couples¹
   
• 9.7 million Americans live with an opposite-sex partner¹
   
• 1.2 million Americans live with a same-sex partner¹
   
• Eleven percent of unmarried partners are same-sex couples¹
   
• The number of unmarried couples living together increased by 72 percent from 1990 to 2000¹
   
• The number of unmarried couples living together increased tenfold between 1960 and 2000¹
   
• Forty-one percent of American women ages 15-33 have cohabitated at some point²
   
• Fifty-three percent of women's first marriages are preceded by cohabitation³
   
• More than 34 percent of lesbian households have one or more children present¹
   
• More than 22 percent of gay households have one or more children present¹
   
• Forty-one percent of unmarried household have children under the age of 18 in them¹
   
• Forty-one percent of first births to unmarried women are to cohabitating couples³
   
• About two-fifths of children are expected to live in an unmarried household at some point in their lives¹

1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2000
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3. "Trends in Cohabitation and Implications for Children's Family Contexts in the United States" by Larry Bumpass and Hsien-Hen Lu

Additional information about unmarried couples and financial planning can be found in Money without Matrimony: The Unmarried Couple's Guide to Financial Security ($21.95, 288 pages, paperback, ISBN: 1-4195-0688-9) which will be available in June 2005 at neighborhood and online booksellers or by calling 800/245-2665.