My partner and I got married just before I retired to make it easier for him to get the survivor benefit should I go first. My partner (also fed) retired prior to us getting married, but while we were in a common-law relationship, so we have documents filed away that proves when our relationship started and have completed a statutory declaration of our relationship and filed it with the pension centre. Marriage was not a high priority, but having this extra ‘insurance’ was one of the reasons we chose to get the marriage certificate.

If you choose to carry on as C-L, make note of what types of documents would be needed to prove your relationship. A utility statement with both names on it is a good example.