What do cohabiting couples need to know?

Under social insurance schemes and inheritance law, cohabiting partners are in a worse position than spouses: pension funds, for example, apply strict conditions to the payment of a survivor's pension or lump sum to cohabiting partners, and the legal order of succession doesn't take cohabiting partners into account at all. Cohabiting partners must therefore put plans in place if they wish to ensure that their surviving partner doesn't struggle financially.