DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Leslie McMurray is preparing for the incoming Trump administration with trepidation. In addition to new laws targeting the LGBTQ community introduced in legislatures across the country, she expects to see discriminatory legislation come out of Congress.
And, economically, McMurray said she expects the stock market to do poorly under Trump.
So she has sold her stock portfolio and transferred her money into certificates of deposit, which are federally insured and guarantee a pre-determined rate of return.
“What he’s doing with tariffs — I fear inflation — and we’ve just recovered from an inflationary period,” she said.
And fearing changes in federal rules, one trans friend of hers has renewed his passport three years early to ensure his correct gender remains listed on the document.
Many in the LGBTQ community worry that previous legal decisions protecting LGBTQ rights could be overturned and that new executive orders as well as new laws could impact the community. What many fear most is seeing the U.S. Supreme Court overturn its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that granted same-sex couples the right to marry. Two justices of the Supreme Court have already indicated that, in their opinion, the case was decided incorrectly.
But after almost 10 years of marriage equality, what would a repeal look like? Would all same-sex marriages be annulled? Would just future marriages be prohibited? Would we go back to a patchwork of state laws?
The various national organizations disagree on the answers to those questions.
Legal rights and recognitions
Local attorney Lorie Burch had some advice: “Don’t worry about what you have no control over,” she said.
Things like inheritance and decision-making power for a spouse are not automatically granted to a spouse. Her advice to all couples is to get their paperwork in order, and that advice doesn’t change based on who is sitting in the Oval Office.
“When it comes to estate planning,” Burch said, “you are not being discriminated against.”
And work with an attorney, she adds. Don’t trust templates for documents that can be found online.
“Over 90 percent of what you get online is not valid in Texas,” she said.
Burch said in Texas, an estate doesn’t automatically pass to a spouse — even if both names are on a mortgage and bank accounts.
“Joint tenancy with rights of survivorship doesn’t exist in Texas,” she said.
And marriage doesn’t equal a right to inherit.
Draw up a will or a revocable living trust. Burch said in her practice, trusts have become more popular than wills because the trust avoids probate court. She said a copy of a will goes to everyone named in the document, but a trust is more private and much harder to challenge in court.
She said it’s smart to have powers-of-attorney documents in place, too. Medical powers give a person you’ve chosen the right to make medical decisions for you when you are not able to make those decisions yourself. Financial powers-of-attorney allow someone else to pay your bills and make other decisions involving money when you are physically or mentally unable to do those things yourself.
Same-sex couples’ right to adopt children is something else that could be challenged.
“Do the second parent adoption now,” Burch urged. “That would be something that would be easy to lose.”
Burch used herself as an example of when many people think the second parent adoption isn’t necessary. She was the egg donor for her daughter with her wife, Kimberly Kantor. The fertilized eggs from Burch were then placed in her wife, who carried the baby to term.
Under Texas law, the woman who gives birth to the child is the mother. Burch said she adopted her own biological child to establish that she wasn’t simply an egg donor to make sure she is legally recognized as her own child’s parent.
So new laws or court decisions that happen during the second Trump administration may change how LGBTQ families are viewed, but with the right legal documents, very little should actually change in day-to-day life.
Financial preparedness
Judy Sherman is a certified family business specialist whose best financial advice as we look toward the new administration is “Stay the course but be attentive.”
For younger investors, she said having a balanced portfolio is even more important because their planning should be looking beyond a four-year term. But she does have a warning.
“Don’t put your head in a hole in the ground,” she said, “but don’t make any radical changes to your portfolio.”
She said there are two yellow flags — immigration policy and tariffs — that could turn to red flags as it affects the U.S. economy. “Pay attention to what’s happening and try to understand what the implications are for your personal situation,” she said.
Sherman said she’s not an investment analyst so she doesn’t pick stocks, but sectors that benefit from less regulation should do well. As for putting cash into CDs, she said, rates are good now. But expect rate cuts over the next few years. Interest rates should go down, making the stock market look more attractive.
And as for bad laws passing in this spring’s session of the Texas Legislature — consider spending a day in Austin lobbying representatives for or against legislation that will affect your life.
