Marriage & Domestic Partnerships

You may add your new spouse or domestic partner to your health, dental and vision plans within 31 days of the qualifying life event. If you miss that window, you must wait until the next annual Open Enrollment period. The checklist below will help you to keep track of any changes you need to make to your benefits.

Learn about MIT benefits for domestic partners.

Checklist

Health, dental & vision plans

  • Compare your spouse's or partner's health plan with the options offered by MIT to determine whether it makes sense to have a family plan from one employer or two individual plans, one from each employer.
  • Enroll or make necessary changes to your MIT health, dental, and vision plans within 31 days from the date of your marriage. Refer to the MIT Health Plan, MIT Dental Plan, and MIT Vision Plan pages for details.
  • If marriage changes your financial situation and your eligibility for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, you have 60 days to make corresponding changes to your MIT health-related benefits. Learn more about SCHIP.

Life insurance & retirement

  • Evaluate your participation in the MIT Life Insurance Plan. You may add or increase coverage at any time during the year.
  • Review and update your beneficiaries under the MIT Life Insurance Plan and MIT Retirement Plan to ensure they are current. If you are married and your most recent Beneficiary Designation on file for the MIT Retirement Plan does not designate your spouse as the sole primary beneficiary, and does not have spousal consent for this designation, your spouse will be beneficiary of 100% of your account balance. 

Flexible spending accounts (FSAs)

Domestic partner

If you are eligible to receive benefits, you may include your domestic partner in your medical, dental, or vision plan coverage.

In order to enroll your domestic partner, you must complete the Affidavit of Domestic Partnership (PDF) and send it directly to the Benefits Office at E19-215. If you would like to terminate the coverage for your domestic partner, you must complete the Declaration of Termination of Domestic Partnership (PDF) and send it directly to the Benefits Office at E19-215.

How does MIT define domestic partner?

A domestic partner is a same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partner who meets the following eligibility criteria:

  • A domestic partner must be at least 18 years of age.
  • Neither you nor your partner must be married to anyone and you must share — and intend to share indefinitely — a mutual, exclusive, enduring relationship.
  • You must have occupied a shared residence for at least four months and intend to do so indefinitely.
  • You must consider yourselves life partners, share joint responsibility for your common welfare, and be financially interdependent.
  • You must not be related by blood to the extent that marriage would be illegal in the state of Massachusetts.
  • Roommates, siblings, and parents do not qualify as domestic partners.
Dependent coverage

You may cover your domestic partner's children under these conditions:

  • They are unmarried dependent children of your domestic partner.
  • The children live regularly with you and your domestic partner.
  • The children qualify as dependents of either the employee or domestic partner for tax purposes.
  • You and your domestic partner are required to provide coverage for the children because of a court order.
  • The children's ages and/or student status meet the eligibility requirements for the particular benefit plan.
Tax information

In addition to paying the premium for your domestic partner's medical, dental, or vision coverage, you must pay tax on the amount of MIT's contribution to those benefits. Under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 125, the value of the coverage for a domestic partner (spousal equivalent) and/or any dependents of the domestic partner are taxable as "imputed income" to the employee. In tax terms, imputed income is income from non-cash sources. The amount of imputed income is based on the market value of the coverage purchased for these additional family members and is recalculated annually.

Why the period for making changes is limited

Most of the benefit plans offered through MIT are paid with pre-tax dollars. In exchange for that tax advantage, you are legally prohibited from enrolling in, canceling, or making changes to your medical, dental, and reimbursement account plans outside of the annual Open Enrollment period unless you experience a qualifying change in your life.

MIT's policy for allowing changes outside Open Enrollment in the case of certain qualifying life events is consistent with the federal Department of Labor guidelines under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

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