Indiana University
Benefits Change Connection

Same-sex Domestic Partners

To enroll a domestic partner in IU benefit plans, you must first register the partnership. Allowed and required changes correspond to those described for a spouse under Marriage and Divorce/legal separation. Termination of a domestic partnership makes a partner and his or her child ineligible for benefits.

To make changes to any of the plans listed immediately below, you will need to request a Family Status Change through the Employee Center on OneStart and complete online enrollment of your changes once your request is approved by HR. You must make the change within 30 days.

Dental plan

Medical plan

Personal Accident Insurance plan

Tax Saver Benefit

For IRS-qualified dependents only.

You may also want to consider making changes to the plans listed below. Such changes do not require the submission of a Family Status Change and can be done at any time.

Change Beneficiaries on Retirement and Insurance plans

Change the beneficiaries on your base retirement and life insurance, as well as any other supplemental plans.

IU Tuition Benefit (formerly Fee Courtesy)

Domestic partners and their children are eligible for the Tuition Benefit.

Personal Data Change Form (PDF)

For changes to marital status, name, address and emergency contact.

To register a same-sex domestic partnership:

Print the Affidavit of Domestic Partnership.
Consult an attorney and tax advisor concerning any legal or tax obligations that may be created by the affidavit.
Submit the affidavit and required supporting documentation to University Human Resource Services (Attention: COBRA Specialist, Poplars E165, Bloomington) for review.

A copy of the approved affidavit will be returned to you.

To terminate your registration of a same-sex domestic partnership:

Complete the Termination of Domestic Partnership form.
Return the form to University Human Resource Services (Attention: COBRA Specialist, Poplars E165, Bloomington) within 30 days of the dissolution.

To certify a same-sex domestic partner and/or children of the partner as an IRS-defined tax dependent:

Read the section, Tax Information on the University Human Resource Services Web site. This is important because both the university's and employee's cost of providing domestic partner benefits is considered taxable employee income by the IRS.
If a domestic partner and/or a domestic partner's children are IRS-defined tax dependents of the employee, the employee should submit the Certification of Tax-Qualified Dependents form.
Return the form to University Human Resource Services (Attention: COBRA Specialist, Poplars E165, Bloomington).