Elder Law Report
Elder Law Report
Creating Inclusive Estate Plans for LGBTQ+ Families
Celebrate Pride Month with us on the Elder Law Report as we promise to equip you with vital estate planning insights tailored for LGBTQ+ individuals and families. Joined by attorneys Samantha Gordon and Jane Dearwester, along with our Marketing Director and Diversity Officer, Morgan Woody, we tackle the unique challenges of non-traditional family structures. Discover the importance of selecting the right agents, incorporating chosen family, and potentially distancing from unsupportive relatives. Hear Morgan's compelling story about starting her estate plan at just 24, overcoming hurdles like disinheritance, and ensuring her partner is recognized as a beneficiary. This episode is packed with essential information, from understanding intestate succession to the crucial role of agents in healthcare decisions, especially for trans individuals.
Our discussion doesn't stop at legal intricacies. We highlight the critical need for community outreach and support for LGBTQ+ individuals, emphasizing a safe and welcoming environment at McIntyre Elder Law. Whether you're in Uptown Charlotte, Hendersonville, or Shelby, North Carolina, take advantage of our offer for a free consultation. Reach out to us to ensure your estate plan truly reflects your wishes and supports your chosen family. Don't miss this insightful episode aimed at empowering you with the knowledge to navigate complex estate planning issues with confidence and care.
Hi, welcome to the Elder Law Report. I'm attorney Samantha Gordon with McIntyre Elder Law. I am joined by attorney Jane Deerwester at our Hendersonville office and our marketing director Morgan Woody. Good morning, hi. All right. So today we are going to be discussing well, it's Pride Month first of all, and we are going to be discussing LGBTQ plus estate planning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited about this.
Speaker 2:I've started a series on non-traditional family estate planning that we've been promoting here in Hendersonville and really firm-wide.
Speaker 2:I wrote a non-traditional family estate planning guide that's available on our website, and part of that, of course, is LGBTQ plus families.
Speaker 2:There are just some issues that involve those family structures that require a little bit of extra attention, maybe a little bit of extra planning, and now that marriage equality is legal, it is not as much of an issue as it used to be before.
Speaker 2:But I think there are still a lot of issues that need to be addressed within the community, especially in picking agents, about incorporating your chosen family, maybe about distancing yourself from blood relatives who are not supportive of your lifestyle. So there are really a lot of things, a lot of areas we can go through in estate planning consultation with our LGBTQ plus and trans clients to really understand what they're going through, what their concerns are, and really just to treat them like any other estate planning client that comes in to talk about their assets and help them accomplish their goals. So I think just promoting and inviting this community to come in to know that McIntyre Elder Law is a safe space for them to come and talk about their estate plan. I think that's step one is just to let them know hey, no judgment, come in here. We're here to help everybody, and so we've seen a great response so far from putting out our guide and getting our specific non-traditional events out into the community.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and I also think a very important aspect of that as well is that individuals within the LGBTQ plus community. They have more complex situations, more than likely, where they do not have maybe biological beneficiaries or they have their chosen families and we want to make sure that their estate plan reflects that and that they speak with one of the attorneys to really guide them through that and make sure that their estate plan is going to reflect what their wishes are specifically with, you know, anything that's going on in their life and I think Morgan, you know, could attest to that and give us an example of you know how she's done that personally within the firm.
Speaker 3:Hi, my name is Morgan. I am the Marketing Director here at McIntyre Elder Law. I also serve as our diversity, equity and inclusion officer here. So I am really a big proponent of making sure that we are marketing to everybody who we want to serve, which is everybody. And for me, being an out and proud lesbian and being able to be proud of where I work and invite my own community into my workplace is really important for me. So I'm really happy that I get to do that here.
Speaker 3:And I also got a jumpstart on my estate plan at the ripe age of 24 years old. So people think that that's early, but for me it was really important to get it done. I have some not so supportive family members and once I learned about how intestate succession in North Carolina works, I was like oh no, that is not going to happen for me. So I had to make some really tough decisions and come to some really hard realizations with that Like, for example, I had to specifically disinherit my father because I did not want him to receive part of my estate for being unsupportive Like he shouldn't get my stuff right. Unsupportive, like he shouldn't get my stuff Right. So I had to make that decision and then also, even though I'm not married, I went through and I specifically named my partner as a beneficiary in my estate plan. It was just really important to me to be able to have that in place and make sure that not only I'm protected, but my wishes, my finances, my property and my cat, most importantly.
Speaker 1:Pets are just as important. I think that that's amazing and I just want to touch on a few legal concepts that you mentioned. So, first and foremost, what is interstate secession? So interstate secession is the laws in North Carolina that have been put in place. If you do not have an estate plan, and who is going to inherit from your estate, that can be anyone up to your third cousin in North Carolina. There is a parenthetical line, how that goes and decides who inherits from you, and it could be someone, as Morgan stated, that you do not want to inherit from you.
Speaker 1:So having an estate plan in place avoids that, as long as it's done properly, and that's why you want to meet with a professional to get that done. In addition, she mentioned an agent. So an agent is going to be an individual that you've chosen through a power of attorney, whether that's a financial power of attorney or healthcare power of attorney, and I think that within this community, it's very important to have specifically a healthcare PAB attorney, which does not go into effect until someone becomes incompetent and cannot make their own healthcare decisions. The individual that they've named will then make those decisions for them, and if you have specific limitations or desires or wishes, and you want this trusted individual to carry those out for you. Having a document in place that lists those is going to be super important. Would you say that, jane?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think that's particularly important in the trans community and people who are transitioning that they need to make sure that their healthcare agent in particular understands, like, if they're going through transition, if they're receiving medication, whatever hormones, that that treatment can continue even if they're incapacitated, if needed and if that's safe. And so I just want to give kudos to Morgan for getting her affairs in order and really taking charge of it, and also just point to the fact that she brought up she did this at age 24. So you don't have to wait until 18 years of age or older.
Speaker 2:I'm saying this all the time in our seminars and I did a blog a couple months ago that's on our website about estate planning for millennials that we don't have to wait. There's an assumption that you've got to be over 55 or over 65 to start planning. People wait to their 70s. Very often. We have people come in here in their 80s and 90s and sign their documents for the first time ever, and so, in addition to Pride Month and celebrating LGBTQ, trans individuals, I think also just getting young people to understand in general that you can get started now and this plan could keep you going. For, you know, 10, 15 years before you even have to make a change, and then you've got this safety net in place. So I love that and kudos to you, morgan. You know, 10, 15 years before you even have to make a change and then you've got this safety net in place. So I love that and kudos to you, morgan, for getting it done.
Speaker 3:Thank you to Sam for writing my estate plan Right.
Speaker 2:I just did mine too by the way I just got mine done a couple weeks ago. So we're all. We're all getting it together here. Wonderful, I said. I'm not just an attorney here, I'm also a client.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome, morgan. I would want you, if possible, to maybe list some considerations that individuals within the LGBTQ plus community should have when they're thinking about an estate plan, or encourage why having an estate plan. You know someone part of that community. I think that that would be great for our viewers and our listeners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course. Um. So one thing I mentioned, of course, was having to disinherit unsupportive family members. I also made sure that in my list of beneficiaries I had several, several backups that ultimately led to a charity benefiting LGBTQ organizations. Um, so that way that if I truly exhaust the line of people I would like to inherit, um, that still will not go to an unsupportive member of my family which unfortunately, um, they're not all very supportive. Um, of course I'm very lucky to have some who are, but I know for many LGBTQ plus people that is unfortunately not the case.
Speaker 3:When it comes to the healthcare power of attorney that is incredibly important for trans members of our community, just writing out how you would like to be addressed if you are incompetent and unable to speak for yourself. Making sure somebody addresses you with the correct pronouns. Making sure that, even if you are in a coma or some other state, that you are still receiving your hormones, so that way, if that time does come and you do come out of that coma, you don't have your hormone schedule messed up, impacted, because those effects can be really mentally and physically devastating truly Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:That's helpful for us to know and again, as we're out in the community, just to get more stories from individuals in the community to help us know what we can do to assist and help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely and about. So there's some statistics that I would want to end this um podcast with as well. So about 4% of North Carolinians are within the LGBTQ plus community and then about 26% of those have children. So really thinking about that and making sure their estate plan reflects really what their wishes are and only including the individuals that they want to either inherit their assets or make decisions for them that's super important. You want to make sure that you know. If you do not have a power of attorney in place, a guardianship proceeding would have to happen within our North Carolina courts, and then you have the court deciding who's going to be your guardian, who's going to be making these decisions for you. If you have a power of attorney in place and it's used properly, you can ensure that you've chosen a trusted individual that can make those decisions for you. That's super important as well, maybe even as important as having a will.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And going back to the power of attorney, I would really hope that this wouldn't happen, but unfortunately there may be a judge presiding over the guardianship case who does not have your best identity and interest in mind, so that is unfortunately something that can be muddled within our systems. So it's really important just to take every step that you possibly can to protect yourself and your loved ones. Thank you, morgan.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Well. Thank you everyone for joining us today. We really enjoyed having this discussion during Pride Month and we encourage all individuals of the LGBTQ plus community to reach out to us could really benefit you and your loved ones. We would love to offer a free consultation in all of our offices. We have an office in Uptown Charlotte, in Hendersonville, also in Shelby, north Carolina. You can give us a call at 888-999-6600 or visit our website at mcelderlawcom. Scheduling.