When two people are united in marriage, they simplify their lives by combining financial assets such as checking and saving accounts, a move which, according to one marriage therapist, Beth Erickson,  brings “greater intimacy.”  Erickson’s view is shared by the majority of Americans as showed by a recent survey conducted by  Merrill Lynch in February.  [...]

The United States Supreme Court heard arguments last week for and against government efforts to protect traditional marriage from same-sex marriage.  Whether or not the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional was under discussion by the court on Wednesday.  DOMA was passed in 1996 and defines legal marriage as a marriage between [...]

With June, the most popular month to get married, just around the corner, many couples are planning to tie the knot.  According to two wedding sites, the cost of tying the knot has been inching upward and is now close to an all-time high. An annual survey by TheKnot.com and the WeddingChannel.com discovered the average [...]

A recent wedding trend that is occurring more often is weddings for two.  A wedding for two involves just the bride and groom, and according to Kelly Karli the owner of Frosted Pink Weddings, these type of weddings are popping up more and more. Regardless of the fragile state of the economy, two people in [...]

When a couple has divorced and tax time rolls around, the question may arise as to who will be able to claim the child as a dependent on their tax return?  This question needs to be answered before the divorced parents file their returns to avoid running into problems with the IRS.  For tax purposes, [...]

Washington state became one of three states to approve same-sex marriages earlier this year.  When voters approved laws giving them the legal right to marry, many same-sex couples rushed to the courthouse to be wed.  Although several states have given these couples the legal right to wed, federal laws do not recognize these marriages and [...]

The divorce process is a particularly emotional and stressful time for all involved.  A parent’s divorce can be a very damaging process for a child, one that is made even more so when one or both parent(s) do not take the child’s emotional well-being into consideration by attempting to cause a deliberate rift between the [...]

When two individuals marry to circumvent U.S. immigration laws, this is considered a fake or sham marriage.  For a marriage to valid under the law, even though a couple may have gone through a marriage ceremony and received the proper government stamps on their marriage certificate, this may not be enough to constitute a “real [...]

In this country today, about fifty percent of marriages end in divorce.  There are those who question if it would be wiser if couples lived together to see if they were compatible and then married.  In the past, if a couple lived together before marrying, it was a sign that if the couple did marry, [...]

When a couple gets married, each makes their various financial accounts payable to each other.  In fact, to designate someone else as the beneficiary on a life insurance or retirement account requires the signature of approval from a spouse.  Unfortunately, about half of the marriages in our country today end in divorce.  When a couple [...]