Can I Still Register a Domestic Partnership in Washington?

Washington still registers domestic partnerships, but the program looks nothing like it did when it launched in 2007. Today it exists for one group: couples where at least one partner is 62 or older. The Law Office of Chad Foster helps Snohomish County clients with divorce and family-law matters.

Yes, you can still register a state domestic partnership in Washington, but only if you meet the current requirements in RCW 26.60.030, and the one that filters out most couples is age: at least one partner must be 62 or older. Washington rebuilt the program around older couples after marriage equality arrived, because for some seniors, marrying would reduce social security or pension benefits earned through a prior marriage. Here is who qualifies, how registration works, and what a registered partnership actually gets you.

Why the Program Changed

Washington created state registered domestic partnerships in 2007, when same-sex couples could not marry. After voters approved marriage equality through Referendum 74 in 2012, the state no longer needed a parallel track for couples who were simply barred from marrying, and under RCW 26.60.100, same-sex partnerships in which neither partner was 62 or older were automatically merged into marriages as of June 30, 2014 unless the couple had dissolved or converted the partnership first. For related guidance, see How does domestic violence affect divorce.

What survived is the senior partnership. The legislature's reasoning is written directly into RCW 26.60.010: some couples are fully able to marry, but social security and pension rules make marriage practically punishing, particularly for a surviving spouse or divorced spouse drawing benefits tied to an earlier marriage. Remarrying can cut off those benefits. A registered domestic partnership is not a marriage for most federal purposes, although the Social Security Administration does treat a Washington registered domestic partnership as a marital relationship for some benefit determinations, so the effect on any particular benefit has to be checked before you register. The domestic partnership gives those couples a state-law structure for their relationship without forcing that trade. For related guidance, see Do Domestic Partners Have Community Property Rights in Washington.

Who Qualifies Today

RCW 26.60.030 sets out the requirements, and you must meet all of them. Both partners must share a common residence. Both must be at least 18, and at least one of the two must be 62 years of age or older. Neither can be married to anyone else or in a domestic partnership with anyone else. Both must be capable of consenting. And the partners cannot be nearer of kin than second cousins, nor can either be the other's sibling, child, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew, mirroring the kinship rules for marriage in RCW 26.04.020.

Note what is not on the list. The partners do not need to be a same-sex couple; opposite-sex couples qualify too. There is no minimum length of relationship, and "share a common residence" does not require owning property together.

Registration itself is straightforward. Under RCW 26.60.040, the couple signs a declaration of state registered domestic partnership, has it notarized, files it with the Washington Secretary of State, and pays a modest filing fee, after which each partner receives a certificate. There is no ceremony requirement, no license from the county auditor, and no waiting period.

What Rights Do Registered Domestic Partners Have?

Under state law, essentially all of them. RCW 26.60.015 declares the legislature's intent that for all purposes under state law, registered domestic partners are treated the same as married spouses, with statutes to be liberally construed to achieve that equal treatment. That includes community property rights, inheritance rights, the ability to make health care decisions for each other, and the right to dissolve the partnership through the same superior court process as a divorce, with property divided the same way. The property side is covered in detail in do domestic partners have community property rights in Washington.

The critical caveat is federal law. A state registered domestic partnership is generally not a marriage for federal purposes. That is precisely why the program exists, but the picture is not uniform: the Social Security Administration treats a Washington registered domestic partnership between same-sex partners as a marital relationship for spousal and survivor benefits and refers opposite-sex partnerships for a case-by-case legal determination, its rules also let a widow or widower who remarries at 60 or older (50 or older if disabled) keep survivor benefits on the earlier spouse's record, and the non-marriage status cuts the other way elsewhere, with no federal spousal treatment for income tax filing status, the unlimited estate tax marital deduction, or immigration sponsorship. Couples weighing marriage against partnership late in life are really weighing state-law equality against a bundle of federal consequences, and the right answer depends on each partner's benefits, assets, and estate plan.

Marriage or Domestic Partnership: The Senior Couple's Question

For a couple in their 60s or 70s, often with children from prior marriages, the choice usually turns on three things. First, benefits: will remarriage reduce or end a survivor annuity, a pension, or social security drawn on a former spouse's record? Second, the estate plan: marriage and partnership both give the survivor inheritance rights and community property claims that can collide with plans to leave assets to children, which is why many couples pair either choice with a prenuptial or partnership agreement and updated wills. Third, long-term liability: state law ties spouses' and partners' finances together in ways that matter if one partner needs expensive care.

None of those questions has a one-size answer, and getting it wrong can cost a surviving partner or an adult child dearly. This is estate planning and family law at the same time, and it deserves an hour of analysis before you file anything.

Ending or Converting a Partnership

Two more mechanics round out the picture. A registered domestic partnership ends the way a marriage does: through a superior court dissolution, with property divided and support available under the same statutes, not by simply filing a termination form with the Secretary of State. Couples sometimes assume the registration can be undone as easily as it was made, and the assumption causes real damage when one partner acts on it. Conversion runs the other way: partners who later decide to marry can do so, and the marriage supersedes the partnership, with rights continuous from the earlier registration. Couples who registered elsewhere should also have their out-of-state partnership or civil union reviewed, since legal unions from other jurisdictions may be recognized here with equivalent effect, and stacking a Washington registration or marriage on top of an unexamined out-of-state union is exactly the kind of tangle that surfaces later in a dissolution or probate.

Talk It Through Before You File

If you and your partner are considering a registered domestic partnership, or trying to decide between partnership and marriage, the Law Office of Chad Foster can walk you through the property, inheritance, and planning consequences of each path and draft the agreement and estate documents that make your choice stick. Call 425.785.8679 to set up a conversation with a Snohomish County family law attorney.