Domestic Partnership Benefits
Domestic Partners Benefits
Emory offers benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of employees and students. Below are some facts about these benefits.
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Domestic Partnership Defined
A "domestic partnership" is defined, for this purpose, as a long-term committed relationship between two people of the same sex that is of indefinite duration, with an exclusive mutual commitment similar to that of marriage. Further, domestic partners share financial responsibility for each other's well being and debts to third parties. This means that they have entered into a contractual commitment for that financial responsibility or have joint ownership of significant assets (such as home, car, bank accounts) and joint liability for debts (such as mortgages and major credit cards).
In addition, in a domestic partnership as defined by Emory, neither partner is married to anyone else or has another domestic partner, and partners are not related by blood to a degree that would bar marriage in the state of their residence.
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Benefits Available to Domestic Partners
Domestic partners of employees are eligible for the same benefits granted to the spouses of married employees: inclusion in the employee's health insurance and dental insurance coverage, courtesy scholarships, and access to the PE Center and libraries. In addition, domestic partners are considered family members for the purposes of granting the employee sick, medical, family, and funeral leave.
Children of domestic partners of employees are eligible for inclusion in the employee's health or dental insurance coverage. However, they are not eligible for courtesy scholarships unless they have been legally adopted by the employee.
Domestic partners of students are eligible for access to the PE Center and library. However, because Emory does not subsidize health or dental insurance for students, no insurance benefits are currently available to the domestic partners of students.
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Registering a Domestic Partner
Statement of Same-Sex Domestic Partnership forms are available in the Office of LGBT Life and in Human Resources.
If you are an Emory employee and your partner wishes to take advantage lf the full range of benefits available to him/her, including coverage under your health or dental insurance plans and eligibility for a courtesy scholarship, you must:
- Obtain a Statement of Same-Sex Domestic Partnership, sign it, and have your partner sign it, in the presence of a Notary Public;
- Return the signed, notarized form to Human Resources, where you will be able to enroll your partner under your health or dental plans, or for a courtesy scholarship when eligible;
- If your partner wishes to join the PE Center, bring a copy of your completed DP statement by the Office of LGBT Life (or come by and sign a new one here); we will provide a memo to the PE Center certifying your partner's eligibility for membership.
Students, as well as employees who wish only to secure access to the PE Center and libraries for their partners, may register without going through Human Resources. For PE Center membership, simply follow step 4 above. The libraries require no documentation of partnership status.
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Terminating a Domestic Partnership
When students or employees register a domestic partner, they agree to notify Emory University within 31 days if there is any change in their status which would make the domestic partner and/or other partner's dependent(s) no longer eligible for University benefits (for example, if they no longer share financial obligations or if they are no longer each other's sole domestic partner). To do so, they file a Statement of Termination of Same-Sex Domestic Partnership ("Statement of Termination"). The Statement of Termination affirms that the domestic partnership status is terminated, as of its date of execution, and that a copy of the Statement of Termination will be mailed to the other party by the party authorizing such action.
A subsequent Statement of Same-Sex Domestic Partnership cannot be filed approximately six months after a Statement of Termination has been filed. Termination forms are available both in the Office of LGBT Life and in Human Resources.
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