A faculty member’s article about the legal and financial disadvantages of not being married is featured in the current edition of the Journal of Financial Service Professionals.
Finance faculty member Stephen J. Larson and Hamline University third-year law student Robert B. Larson wrote “The Disadvantages of Not Being Married” to inform financial planners who work with gay and lesbian as well as nonmarried heterosexual couples.
The Journal of Financial Service Professionals, where the article was published this month, is one of the oldest and most prestigious journals for financial planners. The monthly publication provides financial planners with news of applied research in financial planning, including retirement and estate planning, insurance, investments, tax, health care and economics.
“There are 5.5 million unmarried couples in the United States, so there are 11 million people who require unique financial planning services,” Stephen Larson said. “We hope our article will help financial planners understand the legal and financial disadvantages of not being married so they can assist their unmarried clients in the best possible manner."
The article identifies many of the legal and financial disadvantages of not being married. The authors offer an example for each disadvantage by comparing the financial situation of a married couple with that of an unmarried couple.
The article offers a remedy for each disadvantage, if a remedy exists. For example, the authors point out that a one-breadwinner gay couple earning $117,000 annually will pay $5,555 more in federal income tax than a one-breadwinner heterosexual married couple with the same income.
There happens to be no remedy for this disadvantage.
Stephen Larson, a Ph.D. and a Certified Financial Planner®, teaches financial planning courses at Minnesota State Mankato and is program director for the university’s Financial Planning Certificate Program. He has written numerous articles for academic journals such as the Financial Review and the Journal of Financial Research.
Minnesota State Mankato is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, which employs nearly 11,000 full- and part-time faculty and comprises 32 state universities and community and technical colleges. The system serves 242,000 students per year in credit-based courses and an additional 140,000 students in non-credit courses.
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