By John R. Schneider, III & David Auten
Many in our community are concerned about the future of same-sex
marriage and our civil rights. If this is you, let’s do something about it. Take
the following steps to legally and financially protect your relationship as
much as possible.
Joint Tenants with Rights of
Survivorship
Put your assets in a Joint Tenancy with Rights of Survivorship. Joint
tenancy means that when one of you passes away, the other automatically and
fully owns of all your assets. This protects against others’ claims to your
assets.
Wills
Each of you should draw up a will that spells out the owner of your
assets when you pass away. Unless you come to another agreement, inherit your
assets to each other. In the unfortunate event that you both pass away at or
about the same time, include a per stirpes clause to outline the sequence of
inheritors.
Designate an executor, likely each other, to oversee the division of
your estates. If you have children, designate non-biological parents as their
guardian.
Beneficiaries
Update all the beneficiaries on all accounts to be in line with your
will, unless you and your spouse agree otherwise. This technicality catches
many by surprise, but beneficiary designations supersede wills. For this
reason, update your beneficiaries annually when you file your taxes.
Second-Parent Adoptions
If you have or will have children, non-biological parents should
legally adopt and be listed on their birth certificates as second-parents. This
will be hard in some states, as some state constitutions have outdated language
that prohibit two people of the same gender on the same birth certificate.
Powers of Attorney
Designate each other as both financial and medical powers of attorney. Financial
powers of attorney designate an agent to handle financial needs. Medical powers
of attorney designate someone to handle medical needs.
Choose a durable power or springing power of attorney. Durable powers
of attorney authorize an agent to immediately act on your behalf, including if
you become temporarily or permanently incompetent or incapacitated. The
authorization ceases when you pass away.
Springing powers of attorney authorize an agent to act on your behalf
and only goes into effect if you become permanently incapacitated, as
authorized by a medical doctor. This, too, ceases when you pass away.
Living Wills
Living wills outline medical and end-of-life wishes, if you cannot speak
for yourself. Specify DNR (do not resuscitate), the use of feeding tubes,
respirators, dialysis and blood transfusions instructions.
Contact Information
Document important contacts, such as doctors, accountants and
attorneys, and their contact information should you become incompetent or
incapacitated.
Archiving
Store important documents and information electronically. DocuBank electronically stores legal documents and
information on an easily accessible card the size of a credit
card. This is helpful when you must access information on the fly, such as when
medical professionals question your rights to visit your spouse in the hospital.
Even if some of these steps are redundant, they provide added
protection in case the legality of our marriages are questioned.
