Now that marriage is universally available to couples, many new choices must now be made that had, up until now, applied only to opposite sex couples. Some of the most important are the tax choices that must be made while married such as joint filing or the estate tax exemption that may be transferred between spouses. Social Security is also a new playing field allowing newly married couples to use such strategies as “filing and suspend” or being granted survivor benefits. In total, same sex couples now have access to the same benefits as other married couples and need to be brought up to speed on the potential advantages, and disadvantages, to all aspects of a person’s estate after marriage.
See Robert Bloink, & William H. Byrnes, What the same-sex marriage ruling means for insurance agents, Life Health Pro, July 6, 2015.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
