Do you believe Barack Obama will show support towards the GLBT community?

Face it: The future will happen. We all need to learn responsible
strategies. Planning for the good stuff includes saving, making major
investments, buying a home and revving up for retirement; preparing for
the bad stuff includes getting insurance and covering the possibility
of illness or disability. Dealing with all of it at once requires smart
financial planning.

But
gays and lesbians know that the laws of this nation were not written
with us in mind. We have seen first-hand the ways the insurance
industry, the investment process, the tax structure, the retirement
systems and the probate process do not accommodate our goals, our
priorities or our relationships. We long ago learned how to cope,
developing strategies to build successful lives and households.

Many
of the best strategies to address our needs, our lives and our
relationships have universal appeal -- but the 10 strategies presented
below address major issues that are unique to the lives of lesbians and
gays.

1. Pay savings first: the emergency fund

While
evidence is anecdotal, many financial planners who serve the lesbian
and gay community report that, as a group, we're not very good about
establishing funds or saving in general. To the extent this
generalization is true, we have work to do. If you do not have
emergency savings sufficient to cover four to six months of your living
expenses, you are unnecessarily risking financial disaster.

2. Pay savings first: retirement planning

Gays
and lesbians may have a little extra work to do when it comes to saving
for retirement. Many of us may not have the kind of support systems
that come from children and grandchildren. That means we're likely to
need more money in retirement than most. For those of us in
relationships, the lack of survivorship rights in noncontributory
employer pensions and Social Security benefits also means we may need
to do some extra saving. If any of this rings true for you, the time to
plan -- and save -- is now.

3. Make sure you have adequate disability insurance

Regardless
of sexual orientation, people tend to underestimate the risk that comes
with losing the ability to earn an income. For younger people, the
chances of becoming disabled often can be greater than the chances of
dying. For gay people, this can be even more significant, especially
for those of us not in long-term relationships. If an illness or injury
were to leave you unable to work, you might not be able to turn to
family for financial support. Adequate disability insurance is vital to
protect one of your most critical assets: your income.

4. Don't ignore the paperwork: estate planning

If
you want to make certain your final wishes are truly honored, you
should never be without a will and/or a revocable living trust. Relying
on a potentially homophobic local court and an always-unpredictable
family reaction is simply too risky. No matter how well you think you
know your family, you simply cannot know how they'll react to your
death. You don't know how they'll treat the surviving partner or
alternative family you leave behind, and you don't know if they'll
respect your wishes regarding the distribution of your property.
Prepare with care -- and through proper estate planning.

5. Don't ignore the paperwork: the living will

When
illness or incapacity makes it impossible for you to make your own
decisions about medical care or prolonging your life, you want the
medical establishment to respect your priorities. For gays and
lesbians, there is a real risk that your choices and even well-being
may be left to the wrong people. If you don't have a valid living will
or medical directive, by all means execute one.

6. Don't ignore the paperwork: powers of attorney

In
trying to identify who to allow to make important decisions for us when
we can't make them for ourselves, we realize that courts, the health
care system and financial services providers almost always rely on an
historical definition of family that has little relevance to the lives
of many of us. Until something better comes along to guide these
institutions, it's up to each of us to "spoon-feed" them our individual
answers for them to be responsive to our needs. This is done through a
power of attorney, and it's the best hope you have for making sure that
the people you choose are calling the shots when you can't. Powers of
attorney are especially critical for committed couples, and every
couple should execute them.

7. Domestic partnership agreements (couples)

Lesbian
and gay couples who own property together or otherwise combine their
finances face a more serious dilemma than they may realize. If the
relationship ends, there is no established legal pattern for their
unraveling financially interwoven lives. In a worst-case scenario, it
could fall to a judge who doesn't even respect our relationships to try
to find an equitable way to untangle them. In order to avoid this, we
are forced to set the group rules ourselves in advance. This is done
through a domestic partnership agreement. It is essential that every
couple who does not enjoy the benefit of the legal infrastructure that
comes with marriage carefully consider the need for such a document.

8. Tell your family about your estate plan

As
awkward and difficult as it may be, it is essential that you identify
at least one family member to explain your estate plan to in advance.
There's a pretty good chance your wishes will be met with a reaction of
anger and surprise when they're revealed after your death. Remember, as
we've often heard, even good people can act strangely and
uncharacteristically after the death of a loved one. Briefing at least
one family member on you decisions while you're still alive and well
makes it harder for such a reaction to carry much weight -- within a
family or within the courts. This is a critical step for gay men and
lesbians in relationships, where the potential for conflict over your
estate planning decisions is higher (and almost certainly higher than
you think).

9. Avoid an estate-tax trap: keep a paper trail on jointly owned property

Keeping
assets out of the probate court is an important estate planning goal
for most lesbians and gay men, and titling assets jointly with a right
of survivorship often can be a good technique for achieving this goal.
However, there is an important estate trap to beware of when using this
technique: If joint owners aren't married, the tax law assumes that the
entire property was owned by the first joint owner to die. This means
100 percent -- not 50 percent -- of the property's value is subject to
estate taxes upon the first owner's death, and then again upon the
second owner's death. In effect, the government gets to tax half the
property an extra time just because the joint owners aren't married.
The only way to avoid this result is to keep detailed and meticulous
records that prove each person contributed equally to the purchase and
upkeep of the property. The paperwork burden imposed by these rules is
enormous, but with estate tax ratings starting at 37 percent, it's
worth the effort.

10. Come out

It may seem
like strange financial-planning advice, but one of the most important
things you can do to help achieve your financial goals is to come out
of the closet. Until you come out, you cannot ask your employer for
domestic partner benefits, you cannot appeal to your state legislature
to change laws, you cannot attack homophobic practices in the insurance
industry, you cannot ask a bank or a hospital to honor your lover's
power of attorney and you cannot explain your estate plan to your
family. Most important of all, however, you cannot achieve fully the
desired peace of mind that brought you to the financial-planning
process until you never again are forced to hide who you are. Come out!