family (monetary) values

[eirias]

Just got one of the periodic emails from the HRC (who I think *finally* only has me down for the emails I want to receive, and only at the address at which I want to receive them, which took some doing) and it contained happy gay news! According to the missive, Congress just signed into law a bill that makes a couple financial things nicer for gay, unmarried, and otherwise-unusually-structured families:

1) When someone dies, a beneficiary who is not the spouse of the deceased will be allowed to roll over the deceased's retirement account into a personal retirement account of his/her own, instead of having to take the money as a lump sum and suffer tax penalties as a result;

2) In the case of certain "qualifying medical or financial emergencies," spouses and dependents have been able to benefit from withdrawals from a person's retirement account. Now other beneficiaries can be added to this list.

It's a victory for The American Family!

In other news, I should start a list of all the things that have been easier for G & me because we're straight and married. I have noticed a few, mostly financial or logistical, and they seem fairly significant -- like being able to add his name to my CD without closing it, paying a penalty, and opening a new one. OTOH there are also some things that are weird (e.g. if I want to name anybody else as my beneficiary for anything, I have to get him to sign off on it, and vice versa). But I do think we come out ahead.

Comments

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

tod was able to add me to his bank account without needing to close and reopen it... though i suppose cd's could be more complicated than the standard checking or savings account.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Yes, CDs are different. We were able to do it with checking before, just not with a CD that had not matured. This time, we could.

[upsilon.livejournal.com]

You might be interested in this 1997 list of laws (http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/og97016.pdf) from the GAO in which marital status specifically plays a factor. Most of these are, of course, "rights".

(Warning: That's a 75-page PDF. The first 17 pages are summary, and the remainder is the actual listing.)