re: #346 Salamantis
You mean that the surviving spouse would not automatically inherit your property?
But yes, spousal inheritance is only one of several areas concerned; spousal medical decision rights, spousal employee benefits, spousal health benefits, and tax equity are some others.
As for automatic inheritance of property, I only know about Ohio and we still covered our butts. If I’m not mistaken, there are tax issues if one dies intestate. The best thing to do is check your state law.
Medical decisions can be conferred via medial Power of Attorney. Even married couples do this.
The rest of your post speaks to what I believe to be the heart of the issue not so easily resolved which are the spousal medical benefits and social security (which you didn’t mention specifically).
As far as tax issues - well we get clobbered by being married. So be careful for what you wish on that one. lol!