Family Spotlight:
Joe and Carlos
Inequality is one thing that Joe Kapp and Carlos Gutierrez know all too well. Carlos is an attorney and Joe writes about it for The Advocate magazine as the columnist on money issues, personal financial and estate planning for gay men, lesbians and same-sex couples.
Joe and Carlos met in high school biology class in Miami, Florida and are currently celebrating their fifteenth year together. They moved to Maryland from Florida after Joe completed graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Carlos finished law school at Georgetown University. They both have enjoyed progressively successful careers.
In addition to writing for The Advocate, Joe owns and operates his own private wealth management practice which caters to gay men, lesbians and same-sex couples. Joe also serves as President of PEN, Metro DC's LGBT Chamber of Commerce and is active in the metro area's LGBT broader community. To help same-sex couples navigate the issues faced with planning, Joe has taught LGBT financial planning at Montgomery County Schools Adult Education.
Carlos began his legal career working as an intern at the Federal Communications Commission and the White House, prior to moving on to his current role as the Vice President of Network Operations and Strategy at Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Equality is critically important to both Joe and Carlos because they have worked together to build a loving personal and economic life together over the last fifteen years. The reality they both recognize is that under current Maryland law, 10% of their economic achievement will be stripped away upon the death of either of them as a result of Maryland's inheritance tax or what Joe refers to as "Maryland's Gay Death Tax."
Due to their education, training, and planning they have been able to leverage specific legal and financial planning options that will allow them to decrease the detrimental impact the written law will have on them personally passing assets to one another as the "family they choose."
Joe sees the impact of this Maryland's current inequality on a daily basis, as many of his clients are similarly affected by Maryland's treatment of same-sex couples. Whether is it planning for how assets will be distributed at death or determining the best way to plan for retirement, the current laws of Maryland usually require alternative financial and legal arrangements to accomplish the same goals as married couples, often at a significant cost.
Until the laws are changed and true parity exists in both Maryland and federally, same-sex couples will continue to be first class tax payers and second class citizens.
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