Finances, health care and child custody still fraught with difficulty for same-sex couples
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Although same-sex marriages are now legal in more than a dozen states -- New York most recently began allowing them -- Pennsylvania does not allow same-sex marriage and will not recognize the marriages that occur in other states. The federal government, too, doesn't recognize such unions.
And that means financial planning for same-sex couples is fraught with gray areas and legal hurdles.
"The complexity is exacerbated by the federal government not recognizing their marriages," said Anna Pfaehler, a certified financial planner at Palisades Hudson Financial Group in Scarsdale, N.Y., who expects to start working with more same-sex newlyweds soon.
"When it comes to taxes, they must file separate federal returns, while some states allow them to file joint taxes," she said. "They will have to prepare a mock federal return with joint status to base their New York return on.
"That's four tax returns they have to do. That's a lot of paperwork."
With New York opening the door for same-sex couples to get married, Ms. Pfaehler said she and her colleagues anticipate seeing more clients whose financial planning will require specialized knowledge and attention.
Meanwhile, same-sex couples in Pennsylvania and other states that do not recognize their marriages can re-create many of the legal aspects of marriage through the court system, but it's impossible to do them all.
Certain advantages can be granted to married couples only by the government, such as the ability to transfer assets from one to the other without taxation or immunity from having to testify against a spouse in a court of law.
No Social Security benefits exist for same-sex partners and, if an employer grants health insurance benefits to the partner of an employee, the cost of that insurance could be considered additional income, which is not the case for heterosexuals.
Even in states where same-sex marriage is legal, couples can't count on those laws to protect them when traveling out of state, for example, because the marriage is not portable.
Marital rights recognized by one state may not apply if one partner owns property outside that state, or if one becomes ill or gets injured in another state.
For instance, if a person is injured in a car crash while traveling through Georgia, his or her partner could be turned away at the hospital because the law there doesn't recognize the partner as family.
First Published August 8, 2011 12:00 am
