Why LGBT+ Families Need Unique Estate Planning Strategies

Estate planning gives you an opportunity to decide who receives your property, who can manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated, and who can make healthcare decisions on your behalf. For LGBT+ couples and families, careful planning can be especially important when your family structure or wishes may not be fully addressed by default state laws.

Marriage provides spouses with important legal protections, but unmarried partners generally do not receive the same inheritance rights. Families with children may also need to consider issues of parentage and guardianship, while any adult can benefit from documents that clearly identify trusted decision-makers.

At Middle Tennessee Family Law, we help clients create estate plans tailored to their relationships, assets, and long-term goals. From our office in Franklin, Tennessee, we serve clients throughout Middle Tennessee, including Murfreesboro and Nashville. Contact us today to discuss an estate plan designed around your family.

Protecting Your Partner When State Laws Fall Short

If you die without a valid will in Tennessee, state intestacy law determines who inherits property that passes through your probate estate. A surviving spouse has inheritance rights under Tennessee law. An unmarried partner, however, does not automatically receive the inheritance rights given to a spouse under the intestacy statute.

That distinction can have significant consequences for an unmarried couple. If you want your partner to inherit a particular property, relying on your relationship alone may not accomplish your wishes. A carefully prepared estate plan can specify how you want property distributed and who you want to handle your affairs.

Estate planning can involve more than a will. Depending on your circumstances, beneficiary designations, ownership arrangements, powers of attorney, and trusts may also play a role. These tools should work together because not every asset passes through a will or probate.

Working with our LGBT+ estate planning lawyer can help you identify where Tennessee's default rules differ from your intentions and determine which documents are appropriate for your circumstances.

Securing Parentage and Safeguarding Your Children

Estate planning can also be particularly important when you are raising children. LGBT+ families may include biological parents, adoptive parents, stepparents, and other caregivers, and the appropriate planning strategy depends on each person's legal relationship to the child.

If you have minor children, your estate plan can address who you would want to care for them if a parent dies or becomes unable to do so. Tennessee law generally recognizes parents as the natural guardians of their minor children, and if one parent dies or is incapable of acting, guardianship generally passes to the other parent.

Depending on your family's circumstances, important considerations may include:

• Legal parentage: If you are uncertain about your legal relationship to your child, an attorney can evaluate whether adoption or another legal proceeding may provide additional protection.

• Guardianship planning: You can address who you would want to care for your minor children if no legal parent is available to do so.

• Property planning for children: A will or trust can establish how property intended for a child should be managed and distributed.

• Coordinated family planning: Estate-planning documents should reflect existing custody, adoption, parentage, and other relevant court orders rather than conflict with them.

A will or private agreement does not, by itself, establish parental rights in every situation or override the rights of an existing legal parent. Addressing parentage questions separately from estate planning can therefore be important when building a plan intended to protect your children.

Directing Medical Decisions and End-of-Life Wishes

Healthcare planning allows you to document your wishes and identify the person you trust to make decisions if you become unable to make them yourself. This can be particularly valuable if you want a partner or another chosen person to serve in that role.

Tennessee's Advance Directive for Health Care allows you to appoint an agent to make healthcare decisions for you when you lack the capacity to make those decisions yourself. You may choose a family member, but Tennessee does not require your agent to be related to you.

Creating an advance directive can therefore provide clarity about whom you want involved in important medical decisions. You can also provide instructions concerning treatment preferences and end-of-life care. Tennessee's current Advance Directive for Health Care model combines functions previously addressed in separate living will and medical power of attorney documents.

Key Documents Every LGBT+ Household Needs

There is no single set of documents that every LGBT+ household needs. Your estate plan should instead reflect your marital status, children, property, beneficiaries, healthcare preferences, and other individual circumstances. Depending on your needs, your plan may include:

• Revocable living trust: A properly created and funded trust can provide instructions for managing and distributing the trust's assets and may allow those assets to pass outside probate.

• Last will and testament: A will can direct the distribution of probate property, nominate a personal representative, and address guardianship wishes for minor children.

• Durable financial power of attorney: This document can authorize a trusted agent to handle designated financial matters on your behalf.

• Advance Directive for Health Care: Tennessee's advance directive can document healthcare preferences and name an agent to make healthcare decisions if you become unable to do so yourself.

• Beneficiary designations: Retirement accounts, insurance policies, and other beneficiary-designated assets should be reviewed as part of the overall estate plan.

• Trust planning for children or other beneficiaries: Depending on your goals, a trust may provide instructions for managing assets left to children or other loved ones.

The appropriate combination depends on your family. Coordinating these documents can help reduce uncertainty and make your intentions clearer if you become incapacitated or after your death.

Reach Out to Find Peace of Mind for Your Family

LGBT+ estate planning is ultimately about making sure your legal documents reflect the family and relationships you have built. Whether you are married or unmarried, raising children, planning for incapacity, or deciding how your property should eventually pass, deliberate planning gives you greater control over those decisions.

At Middle Tennessee Family Law, we help clients evaluate their circumstances and create estate plans tailored to their families and goals. From our office in Franklin, Tennessee, we serve clients throughout Middle Tennessee, including Murfreesboro and Nashville. Contact our estate planning lawyer today to schedule a consultation and discuss how you can protect the people and priorities that matter to you.