Many couples today are choosing long-term commitment without marriage or a domestic partnership. Some have been together for decades, share children, own property, and have built a life that looks and feels like a marriage in every practical way. Others delay marriage because of past divorces, financial concerns, student loan debt, or simply because they feel marriage is unnecessary. Those reasons are understandable. But what many unmarried couples do not realize is how much they may be missing, both financially and legally, by remaining unmarried without a carefully structured estate plan.