Protecting Your Same-Sex Marriage with Estate Planning

With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last week, many people are concerned that other fundamental privacy rights are in jeopardy. If you are in a same-sex marriage and you are worried about the Supreme Court overturning Obergefell v. Hodges, or if your spouse is a different color than you and you are concerned about the Supreme Court overturning Loving v. Virginia, you may not be able to protect all of your marital rights through the use of estate planning documents, but you can protect some of them.

Community and Separate Property

What is the difference between separate property and community property?

While many of our American laws are based on English common law, the concept of community property is based on Roman civil law, which may be why it seems unusual to us when compared to other areas of law. It is based on the concept of a community which is created when two parties legally marry or register as domestic partners, and it treats each member of the community as equal regardless of the economic benefit that member contributes to the community.