Marriage brings with it a slew of state and federal privileges, including everything from health insurance and immigration status to social security benefits and probate avoidance. But what if your most important relationships aren’t recognized by the state? This has been the experience of many in the LGBTQ+ community, but also for the increasing number of Americans who are responding to the pressures of modern economic life by building nontraditional support systems – whether that’s friends, neighbors, unofficial aunts and uncles. These webs of care don’t always map neatly onto a tax form or an insurance policy. This week, Reema Khrais talks to a listener from Minnesota who wonders if there are legal loopholes she can use to codify her chosen family. Could a polycule become an LLC? Should she adopt an adult friend who needs financial support? Khrais gets advice from LGBTQ+ legal advocate Angela Giampolo and tax expert Brixton Carothers.A few takeaways from this episode: Adoption used to be an alternative to marriage. Before marriage equality, many queer couples turned to adoption as a workaround to reclaim some of the rights of marriage that weren’t otherwise available to them. This practice arose during the AIDS crisis, when LGBTQ+ couples were denied hospital visitations or dealt with contested wills from hostile family members. Adoption gave legal validity to their relationships and granted decision-making power. That said, you should not adopt your adult friends. Giampolo does not recommend adoption because it is irreversible: “You can never have a falling out with that friend!” Furthermore, legal adoption requires an intent to form a parent-child relationship. “You can’t just adopt your adult friend,” Giampolo warns. “There could be issues with fraud inherent to that.” Some avoid probate by creating a revocable living trust. One of the biggest financial advantages of marriage is that it allows you to avoid probate when bequeathing assets to your spouse. A revocable living trust is a legal arrangement you can set up to manage all of your assets while you are alive and indicate how you want them distributed after your death… to anyone, not just immediate family. While a traditional will still goes through the lengthy and expensive process of probate, a revocable living trust allows you to skip probate entirely. If the government doesn’t recognize your family, you could try becoming a company instead. Giampolo has helped groups of friends and polycules to form LLCs as a means of managing shared assets, like real estate. However, an LLC needs to have some kind of legitimate business going on, or else it is fraud, so check with a financial advisor. Under certain conditions, non-family members can be claimed as dependents. If you want to claim a friend, partner or roommate as a dependent, they must earn less than a certain income cap ($5,050 annually) and live in your household for the full year, and you must have paid over half of their support. If you liked this episode, share it with a friend. And if you want to tell us what you thought about the episode or anything else, email us at uncomfortable@marketplace.org or fill out the form below.