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Comment by honestcoyote | Hacker News Reader

I've often wondered if polyamorus families could make an end run around the old anti-polygamy laws by creating a corporation. It would give legal protection for shared property and money. Would also provide a mechanism for divorce by allowing the remaining people to buy out the shares of the person leaving. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be a start.

I'm personally not poly in any way, but it's a fun thought experiment about how one could make it work in the current legal climate.

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In the midst of reading this I was struck by the question "If corporations are persons, can corporations marry?"

It's called a merger.

... and adopt and raise children, pass their SS to their spouse when they "die" (go bankrupt?), marry human "persons", marry horse, dogs, the subway train et al?

They have no SS? Absurd, why not?

A while back, I was joking to American gay friends that if they wanted to have their rights recognised in post-Citizens United America, they ought to set up an LLC together rather than get married.

Corporations can't have custody of children.

Corporations can't issue medical directives for an incapacitated person.

Corporate shareholders don't get hospital visitation rights or medical insurance via someone's job, et c.

Very true. There's a lot that legal marriage provides which can't be found in a corporation. The idea is that incorporating would provide some benefits and protections that the poly family wouldn't have otherwise.

You probably don't need to be polyamorous to do this.

But it's an expensive option given all the paperwork (and taxes) you'd have to file at least once a year.

In the UK, you'd probably be better off incorporating as a trust - perhaps even a charitable trust, if you can find a good enough cover story.

And you may think you're joking, but a lot of families set up financial trusts for their assets for exactly these reasons.

It would be unusual for a trust to include non-married partners, but I don't see why it would be impossible.

I honestly wasn't joking at all. It's something I've thought of off-and-on over the years.

I could see how a trust would be better, though, in the US at least, I think a corp / LLC might be more flexible. And here, especially if the corp is formed in a few rules state like Nevada or Delaware, the paperwork isn't too terrible for small organizations.

How about a mix of marriage and adoption?

Just assemble a cross-linked family. Write powers of attorney, medical directives, wills, and so on.

The answer is yes, as someone does this already! See:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/up-for-pol...

IANAL but couldn't you argue that legal marriage is basically a special kind of corporation? One that pays way less taxes, sure, but still.

One part that might be different is the special rules for child custody, but there are extramarital legal arrangements for that too.

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