Is it worth getting married?

Not everyone dreams of getting married. And choosing not to marry doesn’t mean you’re any less committed.

Some couples have seen marriages around them break down and decided a certificate wouldn’t have changed anything.

Others grew up at a time, or in a place, where marriage wasn’t an option for them. And some simply don’t feel they need a ceremony to prove their commitment - or the big expense that can come with it.

Both are reasonable ways to build a life together. But they don’t have the same legal or financial consequences and pensions are one of the clearest examples.

You can share a home, split the bills and build a life together. But if you’re not married or in a civil partnership, your partner doesn’t automatically have rights to a part of your pension if you separate. And if one of you dies, there are important legal and tax differences that many couples may not know about.

As more couples choose to live together without getting married, it’s worth knowing what this could mean for your retirement plans. It also helps to understand where marriage does, and doesn’t, make a financial difference.

Fewer couples are tying the knot

Fewer than half of UK adults are now married or in a civil partnership, while the number of couples living together has grown by around 140% since 1996. It’s a sign of how much relationships have changed over the past few decades. Living together without getting married is now a normal part of modern life, but the law hasn’t always moved at the same pace.

That gap between everyday life and the law can cause confusion. Around 46% of people in the UK still believe that ‘common law marriage’ exists, when it doesn’t.

The term generally describes the idea that couples can gain legal rights by living together for a certain amount of time. While some countries recognise common law relationships or marriages in certain circumstances, there’s no such legal status in the UK. You can live with someone for 60 years, raise children together, and split every bill, but none of that gives you the legal rights of a spouse.

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Legal and tax benefits

There are certain financial advantages to being married, and pensions are one of the clearest examples.

If a married couple divorces, there are a few ways their pensions can be split. One option is a Pension Sharing Order (PSO), splitting pension assets fairly between both people. Unmarried couples don't have this option. If one partner has built a large pension pot and the other hasn't, perhaps because one of them stepped back from work to raise children, there's no legal mechanism to rebalance that after a break-up.

The same gap shows up if someone dies. Married couples can pass assets to each other free of Inheritance Tax (IHT). Unmarried couples don't get this benefit automatically, no matter how long they've lived together.

Marriage also brings a couple of tax perks that unmarried couples miss out on. Property and shares can be transferred between spouses without triggering Capital Gains Tax (CGT), meaning each partner can use their own tax-free allowance when they come to sell.

There's also the Marriage Allowance, which lets one spouse transfer up to £1,260 of their unused Personal Allowance to the other. Your Personal Allowance is the amount you can earn before you start paying Income Tax, and it's currently £12,570 (2026/27). This could be worth exploring if one of you isn't working or earning below the threshold. It's a modest saving, but it only applies with a marriage certificate or civil partnership. 

But is a ring really necessary?

None of this means marriage is the only route to financial security as a couple, or that it's right for everyone.

Many of the gaps between married and unmarried couples can be closed with a bit of planning. This can include various measures.

• A will - this ensures your partner is looked after if you die, even though it won't solve the IHT difference.
• Cohabitation Agreements - these can work like a version of a prenup, covering property, savings and other shared assets, without requiring marriage.
• Nominating a beneficiary on your pension - this tells your provider who you'd like your pension savings to go to if you die, since pensions usually sit outside your *will and the rules of intestacy.
• A declaration of trust - this sets out how a jointly owned property should be split if you separate, in whatever proportions reflect what each of you put in, rather than defaulting to a 50/50 split.

*Currently, pensions are considered to sit outside your estate, which means that when you die your beneficiaries can access your retirement savings without having to pay IHT. However, this position is set to change from April 2027. 

These measures can offer some of the financial protections associated with marriage, without couples having to marry. Some couples also point out that marriage doesn't guarantee fairness either. Around 42% of marriages in the UK end in divorce, and going through a divorce can be just as complicated, and costly, as untangling finances as an unmarried couple. 

There's also a wider legal shift underway. A government consultation is currently looking at giving unmarried couples clearer rights when they split up, and at making prenups and post-nups more reliable so they're upheld rather than left entirely to a judge's discretion. Nothing has changed yet, but it's a sign that the gap between married and unmarried couples may eventually narrow.

What’s worth knowing

Whichever path a couple chooses, a few practical issues tend to catch people off guard.

Around 47% of people in the UK still don't have a will. Without one, an unmarried partner has no automatic right to anything left behind, however long the relationship lasted.

Pets are treated as objects in the eyes of the law, in the same way as a sofa or a fridge, and this doesn't change whether or not a couple is married. A court deciding who keeps a pet after a split could look at who paid for it, who covers the vet bills, and who takes it for walks most often.

And for couples who haven't formalised anything, whether married or not, pensions are often the asset that get the least attention day-to-day, right up until a split or bereavement forces the issue.

One option couples may not be aware of is contributing to each other's pensions. Contributions from a partner, sometimes called third party contributions, can still benefit from tax relief. Most UK taxpayers get tax relief on eligible pension contributions, which means that the government effectively adds money to your pension pot. Usually basic rate taxpayers get a 25% tax top up; meaning HMRC adds £25 for every £100 you pay into your pension making it £125. 

Tax relief can be received on personal and third-party contributions up to 100% of your relevant UK earnings, capped at £60,000 per year (2026/27). Tax relief isn’t applied to employer contributions. 

So if you earn £25,000 a year, personal and third party contributions that benefit from tax relief can total up to £25,000.

No single right answer

There’s no simple financial case for getting married - or staying unmarried. Both come with different protections, trade-offs and paperwork.

What matters is knowing where you stand. Love might bring two lives together, but it doesn’t automatically bring pensions, property and inheritance with it.

Whatever a couple decides, it’s worth having these conversations. Who owns what, what happens if you split up, and where your money would go if one of you died aren’t particularly romantic questions, but they need to happen because being clear about your finances is part of building a life together. 

Want to know more about the financial side of saying “I do”? Listen to our Pension Confident Podcast episode, ‘Is it worth getting married?’, where our expert panel explores what marriage could mean for your money - and what unmarried couples may want to think about too. You can also read the transcript, or watch the episode on YouTube..

Risk warning

As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice. 

Please note that tax rules change regularly, and the actual tax benefits you receive will depend on your individual circumstances. If you’re not sure, please seek professional advice.