We are all aware that couples are not rushing into marriage at a young age—or even sometimes at a “middle” age—as was customary years ago. It is fairly common these days for couples to live together for years and even raise children together without availing themselves of the formal framework of marriage. As Joni Mitchell warbled years ago, they may feel, they “don’t need a piece of paper from the City Hall, keeping us tied and true.” The phenomenon of skipping marriage is well-accepted these days, so there is none of the old-fashioned “shame” to worry about, either.

But every union, no matter how close, will end eventually, either in divorce or in death. And couples are discovering that, without legal marriage, a lot of things can go wrong that are hard to remediate. As a result, the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Family Law has just released a draft for discussion on a proposal for a model “Uniform Cohabitants’ Economic Remedies Act” that, if adopted by a state, would provide a new legal framework to help unmarried couples.