Common law marriage in Arkansas is not an option. No matter how many years you have lived together, shared a last name socially, raised children, or filed paperwork as a couple, none of that creates a marriage under Arkansas law. The state requires a marriage license from a county clerk and a ceremony performed by an authorized officiant. Arkansas is in the majority here; only about seven states and the District of Columbia still allow new common law marriages.
What Arkansas Requires Instead
Two statutes control. Arkansas Code § 9-11-201 requires a license from a county clerk before any marriage.1Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-11-201 – Licenses Required Arkansas Code § 9-11-213 then requires the marriage to be solemnized by a judge, member of the clergy, or other authorized official.2Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-11-213 – Persons Who May Solemnize Skip either step and Arkansas courts will not treat you as married.
The license itself runs about $60 at the county clerk’s office, and applicants who are 18 or older face no waiting period.
Common Law Marriages Formed in Other States
Arkansas will recognize a common law marriage that was validly formed in a state that allows them. The rule follows the general principle that a marriage valid where it was created is valid elsewhere.3Social Security Administration. POMS PR 05605.005 – Arkansas
The catch is proof. If you and your partner formed a common law marriage in Colorado, Texas, Iowa, or another recognizing state and then moved to Arkansas, you carry the burden of showing that your relationship met every requirement of the state where it began. Keep documentation together in one place. Useful evidence includes joint federal tax returns filed as married, deeds and account statements listing you as spouses, affidavits from friends and family who knew you as a married couple, and any government records that identify you as spouses. That paperwork matters most when it is hardest to gather: during a probate fight, a benefits claim, or the end of the relationship.
What Unmarried Partners Do Not Get Automatically
Inheritance if Your Partner Dies Without a Will
Arkansas intestacy law directs an estate to blood relatives when someone dies without a will, giving a surviving spouse a defined share.4Justia Law. Arkansas Code 28-9-214 – Tables of Descents An unmarried partner inherits nothing under these rules, regardless of how long the couple lived together.
A surviving spouse also has the right to take against a will, which prevents complete disinheritance.5Justia Law. Arkansas Code 28-39-401 – Rights of Surviving Spouse – Limitations Unmarried partners have no equivalent protection. If a relative contests a will leaving everything to a partner, the partner starts from a weaker position than a spouse would.
Wrongful Death Standing
If your partner is killed by someone else’s negligence, you cannot bring a wrongful death claim in Arkansas. The statute limits eligible beneficiaries to a surviving spouse, children, parents, siblings, and persons who stood in loco parentis to the deceased.6Justia Law. Arkansas Code 16-62-102 – Wrongful Death Actions – Survival Unmarried partners are not on that list, and no private contract can add them.
Property Division
Arkansas divides marital property under equitable distribution during divorce, but that framework only applies to legally married couples.7Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-12-315 – Division of Property – Definition For unmarried couples, ownership follows the title. If your partner’s name alone is on the house you helped pay for, you have no automatic claim on the equity you helped build.
Medical and Financial Decisions
Marriage gives a spouse default authority to make decisions when their partner cannot. Unmarried partners do not have that authority in Arkansas. If your partner is hospitalized and unable to communicate, staff will look to blood relatives for medical direction, not to you.
How to Build the Protections Yourself
Every gap above has a workaround, but each one requires action in advance.
A Will
A properly executed will is the only reliable way to leave assets to an unmarried partner. Couples who want to keep assets out of probate entirely can also use revocable living trusts, transfer-on-death deeds for real property, and beneficiary designations on financial accounts.
How You Hold Title
Joint tenancy with right of survivorship on a deed means the surviving co-owner automatically takes the other’s share at death without probate. It is one of the simplest tools for real property.
Cohabitation Agreements
A written contract between partners can set out who owns what, how expenses are shared, and what happens to property if the relationship ends. Arkansas courts enforce valid contracts, and a signed agreement is the closest thing an unmarried couple has to the property framework marriage provides by default. It does not need to be elaborate, but it should be in writing, signed by both partners, and reviewed by an attorney if the assets are significant.
Beneficiary Designations
Bank accounts, retirement accounts, and life insurance policies pay out to the person named on the beneficiary form. Without a designation, those assets default to intestacy rules and go to legal relatives, not to a partner.
Healthcare Power of Attorney
Arkansas Code § 20-6-103 lets any adult name another person as a healthcare agent.8Justia Law. Arkansas Code 20-6-103 – Oral or Written Individual Instructions – Advance Directive for Health Care The document must be in writing, signed by the person granting authority, and either notarized or witnessed by two adults. At least one witness cannot be related to the signer by blood, marriage, or adoption and cannot be someone who would inherit from the signer’s estate. Unless the document says otherwise, the agent’s authority begins only when a physician determines the signer lacks capacity to make their own decisions.
Financial Power of Attorney
A separate durable power of attorney handles bank accounts, investments, bills, and property. Under Arkansas Code § 28-68-301, this document requires the principal’s signature and notarization but not witnesses.9Justia Law. Arkansas Code 28-68-301 – Statutory Form Power of Attorney Both the healthcare and financial documents should be in place well before a crisis, when there is no argument about capacity or intent.
Children Born to Unmarried Parents
When married parents have a child in Arkansas, the husband is presumed to be the legal father. Unmarried fathers do not get that presumption and must establish paternity separately. The simplest route is signing a voluntary affidavit of paternity at the hospital at birth; hospital staff are required to give both parents the opportunity to complete the affidavit along with written information about what signing it means.10Justia Law. Arkansas Code 20-18-408 – Notice to Parents Regarding Affidavits of Paternity
If paternity is not established at birth, either parent can file a paternity action in court later. Without established paternity, an unmarried father has no legal right to custody or visitation and no obligation to pay child support. Once paternity is established, Arkansas law creates a rebuttable presumption that joint custody serves the child’s best interest, the same standard courts apply in divorce cases.11Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-13-101 – Award of Custody – Definition
Taxes
Unmarried couples cannot file Arkansas income taxes jointly. Each partner files as single or, if they have a qualifying dependent, as head of household.12Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Arkansas 2025 Individual Income Tax Forms and Instructions The same rule applies at the federal level, which can leave an unmarried couple with a higher combined bill than a married couple with the same income.
Domestic Abuse Protection Orders Do Not Require Marriage
Arkansas domestic abuse protection orders are available to unmarried cohabiting partners. The law defines protected relationships broadly enough to cover current or former household members, people in dating relationships, and couples who share a child. Protection is not conditioned on marital status.
If the Relationship Ends
Divorce court gives married couples a structured process for dividing property, assigning debts, and setting support. Unmarried couples get none of that. Disputes over shared assets go to civil court and are handled as contract or property disagreements. The most common tools are:
- Contract claims to enforce a written or verbal agreement about how property or money would be shared. Written agreements are far easier to prove, though courts will sometimes recognize oral agreements with enough supporting evidence.
- Unjust enrichment claims when one partner made significant financial contributions to an asset held solely in the other partner’s name and received nothing in return.
- Partition actions when both partners appear on a deed and cannot agree what to do with the property; either partner can ask the court to force a sale and split the proceeds by ownership interest.
These cases tend to be slow, expensive, and unpredictable compared to divorce. Outcomes turn on documentation. A couple that kept records of contributions, signed a cohabitation agreement, and titled shared property in both names has a much stronger position than a couple that ran everything on trust. The moment to put those protections in place is while both partners are still working toward the same things.