Civil Partnership Act 2004
Introduction
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into effect on 5 December 2005. This legislation allows same sex couples to register their relationship in exactly the same way as a heterosexual couple.
Key points
A civil partnership may be registered providing the parties are:
- of the same sex;
- not already in either a registered civil partnership or already married;
- not already related to each other as parent, child or sibling (in the same way as marriage rules); and
- age 16 or above (parental consent is required up to age 18)
Protection applications where the marital status is “registered civil partner” will, for the time being, need to be submitted via paper applications.
Guaranteed insurability options (GIO)
For existing policies with a policy start date of 5 December 2005 or after, your client will be able to exercise their GIO in the same way as for marriage, when they enter into a registered civil partnership.
For any existing plans before this date your client will not be able to exercise the GIO based on the time when they enter into a registered civil partnership.
The policy conditions will expressly state if the registered civil partnership is included within the GIO definition.
Insurable interest
Anyone in a registered civil partnership will have a similar insurable interest in the life of their registered civil partner as they would have in a heterosexual marriage.
