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This information was provided by Richard H. Hallstrom, Attorney At Law, for Plan-My-Estate.com.
Domestic partners are not afforded the same protection under the law in California as married couples. Estate Planning is especially important for domestic partners since they cannot presume to act on each other’s behalf without the express written authority of their partner in a Will, Trust, or Power of Attorney.
A properly drafted Estate Plan is necessary to:
Override the presumption that family members would have the right to act on behalf of a partner;
Preclude family members from inheriting a partner’s assets under intestate succession laws that govern the distribution of estate when no will or trust is in effect;
Make health care decisions on their partner's behalf;
Make funeral arrangements.
Authorize each other to manage assets, thereby ensuring that only their partner will have the authority to manage their financial affairs and assets in the event of incapacity;
Nominate your partner as conservator of the person and of the estate. This avoids the possibility of a family member being appointed as conservator and revoking a domestic partner’s Power of Attorney.
Effective January 1, 2002, California Assembly Bill 25 greatly expands the legal rights and protections available to those who register as domestic partners in California.
Prior law allowed same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples over the age of 62 to register as domestic partners, as long as they met a list of conditions (for example, that they share a common residence, are at least 18 years old and are not close blood relatives). However, the only significant benefit a couple gained by registering was the right to visit each other in a hospital or other healthcare facility.
The new law makes two important changes. First, it allows additional couples of the opposite sex to register as domestic partners. Under the new law, an opposite-sex couple can register as domestic partners if (1) at least one member of the couple is over the age of 62, and (2) at least one member of the couple is eligible for Social Security old-age benefits.
Second, the new law makes registered domestic partners eligible for a number of legal protections, including the right:
- To sue someone who causes the wrongful death or injury of a partner
- To adopt a partner's child using the state's stepparent adoption procedures
- In some circumstances, to continue to receive healthcare coverage after a partner dies, if that partner worked for the state government
- To receive death and survivor benefits after a partner dies, if that partner worked for certain California counties
- To make healthcare decisions for an incapacitated partner
- To use sick leave to care for an ill partner or partner's child
- To participate in conservatorship proceedings involving a partner. (A partner is also entitled to a legal preference to serve as his or her partner's conservator and to other rights and obligations currently available only to spouses or family members in conservatorship proceedings.)
- To claim disability benefits on behalf of an incapacitated partner
- To claim unemployment benefits after leaving a job to relocate with a partner
- To claim income tax deductions and exclusions for a partner's medical care and benefits
- To be appointed administrator of the estate of a deceased partner, and
- To use California's statutory will form to make bequests (gifts of property) to a partner. (The law provides that a bequest to a partner in a will is automatically revoked if the domestic partnership is terminated.)
The new law also requires group health and disability plans to offer coverage for an employee's domestic partner on the same terms as are offered to an employee's dependents.
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