Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Family Legal Blog

Same-sex couples now have the right to get married anywhere in the United States, but that right has not always given them such freedom. This is important when looking at same-sex divorce cases, especially during the asset division process.

As financial experts have pointed out, the issue is that many of these couples who now choose to get divorced may have only been married for a few years, but that does not mean their relationships started at that time. A lot of them engaged in long-term relationships that were the same as marriage in all but name. They had no choice, with official marriage being illegal.

Most Pennsylvania residents understand the importance of estate planning, but many of them find addressing end of life issues extremely difficult. People in the prime of their lives often vow to have these discussions at some unspecified time in the future, but that only delays the inevitable and leaves their loved ones vulnerable to life's uncertainties. Once the decision has been made to draft an estate plan, the first step is usually compiling a list of all of the assets it will be used to distribute.

Like many daunting tasks, compiling a list of assets can be made easier by breaking the process down into two distinct parts. The first step is making a list of financial assets like bank accounts, retirement plans, investment portfolios and insurance policies. The second step is listing physical assets such as real estate, automobiles, artwork, jewelry and furniture. These lists can then be sorted according to value. During this process, individuals often find that their estate plans write themselves.

Estate planning allows individuals to make end-of-life decisions ahead of time by creating wills and advanced directives. While a will generally includes information on funeral arrangements, inheritances and guardianship of minor children, an advance directive focuses on health care. By creating an advance directive, Pennsylvania residents may make their health care preferences known in writing. If an injury or illness leads to incapacitation, medical personnel and family members may follow the instructions in the advance directive to approve or decline certain treatments.

The AARP states that there are typically two kinds of advance directives: a living will and a health care power of attorney. Each one includes different information, so the AARP recommends that individuals create both rather than just relying on a single form. In general, a living will allows a person to state his or her decisions about end-of-life procedures and other medical treatments. For example, an individual may state that he or she accepts antibiotics or dialysis but does not want to use a mechanical ventilator.

Establishing when you and your spouse will be in charge of caring for the children the two of you share as your divorce is ongoing in Pennsylvania, can be one of the trickiest parts of finalizing the details of your separation. While the two of you may have been used to co-parenting under the same roof, now that your marriage has ended, both of you are moving forward with independent lives. 

Working together with your spouse to create an agreement that will allow both of you to maintain personal boundaries, interests, responsibilities and obligations is only one part of the process of arranging child custody. You also have to take into consideration what is best for your children in terms of the location of you and your spouse and how that impacts your children's schooling, extracurricular activities and ability to maintain friendships and relationships with people in their lives that are important to them. Coordinating these often-conflicting contingencies may make the process of finalizing a child custody plan difficult at times.