What makes this wave of marriages quite different, however, in addition to the fact that it is boy-boy and girl-girl, is that these marriages will be predominantly of couples who are already established in life and carry with them substantial financial detritus, good and bad.
If you are not yet married to your same-sex partner, but intend to do so, then one of the most important things to plan for is that gay marriage is still wholly new. Then again, the next most important thing to plan for is that the problems of late-in-life marriage will affect you irrespective of the gender of the partners.
A recent Forbes article titled “Before Marriage, Same Sex Couples Need Prenups,” provided some pithy advice.
The term “late-in-life marriage,” while perhaps not soft on the ego, is a term designed to acknowledge that you are not blushing eighteen-year-olds, with no assets, careers, or names in the world. In fact, most same-sex partners, couples, and married persons will have fully established and separate financial and legal lives, sometimes by design and often by strict necessity. Regardless, marriage in this new, post-DOMA world will mean a collapse of those borders.
Whether heterosexual or homosexual, couples that are comprised of well-established individuals have so much to consider, including retirement accounts and even accrued liabilities. Consequently, marriage may require planning what should be joined and what should remain separate.
The original article illustrates how prenuptial agreements are being deployed today as more and more persons marry “late-in-life” and that same-sex marriages are (now) no exception in this regard.
Either way, “marriage” is and always has been a very legally loaded term. We are still learning what same-sex marriage will mean, and to some extent we are still learning what marriage in this day and age will mean. Regardless, a solid prenuptial agreement is an important consideration.
Reference: Forbes (June 27, 2013) “Before Marriage, Same Sex Couples Need Prenups”
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