The U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey revealed that for the first time married households are actually in the minority in America. There are now more than 6 million unmarried couples, straight or gay, living together in the U.S. Unmarried couples living together have their own set of financial concerns of which partners need to be aware, since a number of issues are taken care of for wedded couples via the contract of marriage.

Here are a few tips for unmarried couples looking for shared "Financial Bliss":

• Measure individual net-worth and joint net-worth separately: Depending on your legal agreements with each other, you may have assets separately owned and others jointly owned, and you may have individual debts and joint debts. Since the legalities can become very complicated, be sure to document agreements of ownership and get legal advice to sort through any potential issues.
• Plan for the worst: First, make sure each partner has life and disability insurance, and make sure to keep your beneficiaries up to date in case your situation changes. Next, it is important that you establish agreements regarding ownership and other issues for tax and legal reasons, and delineate how your agreement with your partner should be handled in the event of your death or disability. If you have previous unmarried partners, the documents from those relationships should be included. If these agreements were not written down, a thorough description of the oral agreement is necessary, especially if there is a chance that an heir or former partner would have claim to your estate.
• Secure durable powers of attorney for healthcare and financial management: Spouses and relatives have the legal ability to make decisions for you, but an unmarried partner does not unless you file documents that granting your partner power of attorney.
• Draft a legal will: By legal default, only relatives have access to your assets if you don't draft a will.
• Contemplate the emotional before buying a home: Many emotional decisions go into getting married, and buying a home has so many legal and financial implications that it is crucial to figure out the emotional issues beforehand. Changing your relationship's situation afterwards will result in complicated tax and ownership issues. Even if you don't marry it can be expensive to change ownership, so if you own separately and then decide to put your partner on the deed later, you'll have given what the IRS considers to be a large gift and have created a sizable gift-tax liability.
• Beware down-payment gifts when buying a house: Unmarried partners mingling assets for a down payment on a home need to be especially careful of gifts because there are limits before gift tax kicks in. Also, if only one name will be on the deed, be sure to create a contract that specifies any other ownership agreements.
• Adopting your partner's children: Laws regarding the adoption of your partner's children vary from state to state, but those laws and the process of adoption are usually pretty straightforward. Remember that both biological parents must agree to adoption unless one has abandoned or failed to establish a parent-child relationship. If you don't adopt, you risk losing access to your partner's children if you should separate.