Committed Partners and Inheritance: An Empirical Study

There is widespread recognition that U.S. households have changed dramatically in the latter half of the twentieth century. 1 The changes include an increased number of blended families, 2 single-parent households, 3 and unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex committed couples, including some with children. 4 The transformation taking place in U.S. households implicates property law and vice versa. In recognition of the changing U.S. household and the symbiotic relationship between wealth transmission and family, we undertook an empirical study designed to assess public attitudes about the inclusion of surviving committed partners as heirs. This Article reports our findings