Employee Benefits Issues in California Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Same-Sex Marriage Decisions
Polsinelli Podcast - Defense of Marriage Act
Supreme Court’s Rulings On Same-Sex Marriage Spark Many Questions On Employee Benefits
Viewer's Guide to Gay Marriage Oral Arguments
On December 13, 2022, President Joe Biden signed H.R. 8404, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, into law, guaranteeing marriage equality for same-sex and interracial couples under federal law. The law passed both houses of...more
On November 29, 2022, the U.S. Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would guarantee marriage equality, including for interracial and same-sex couples, under federal law. The bill, H.R. 8404, passed the Senate in...more
In 2014, I had the privilege of representing two extraordinary young asylum seekers who had fled from Macedonia, where, because they are a gay couple, they had suffered extreme homophobic violence and sexual abuse at the...more
As we celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month, join us for an important discussion on the significance and implications of the landmark 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees...more
Across the country each June, communities come together to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month. This month of events honors the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan while also...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the withdrawal of three proposed rules that, in one case, had been pending since 2014. The first proposed rule that CMS decided to scrap was proposed in...more
In law school, I wrote papers on the tax consequences of death and divorce for same-sex married couples. The conclusions I drew in those academic exercises included advising same-sex married couples to plan for tragedy well...more
Here’s the next chapter in the saga known as Edith Schlain Windsor v. The United States of America. (For a quick recap, please read Tax & Estate Planning – Small Win for Same Sex Couples?). Two representatives of the state...more
A 2013 change in the City of Houston’s employee benefits policy to extend benefits to the same-sex spouses of City employees, intended to align the City’s policy with what its legal counsel determined was a federal...more
In a recent Notice, the Internal Revenue Service set forth some administrative procedures helping taxpayers recalculate gift and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption with respect to gifts and bequests made to or for the...more
Action Item: This is the fourth installment of our Annual Estate Planning Newsletter, and focuses on matters of interest to married couples. We urge you to review this installment to ensure that your 2016 estate and tax...more
The short answer: No plan amendments are required, but certain plan amendments and operational changes are permitted, and certain operational changes may be required....more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Notice 2015-86, which provides some additional clarification, in the form of questions and answers, on the treatment of same-sex spouses under tax-qualified retirement plans...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recognized the retroactive application of United States v. Windsor. In Schuett v. FedEx Corporation, plaintiff and her long-time...more
Editor's Overview - Happy New Year! Because 401(k) plans play an increasingly prominent role as an employee's principal retirement investment vehicle, fiduciaries overseeing those plans face increased pressure to see...more
Following the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in U.S. v. Windsor (in which the Court held that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) was unconstitutional), one of the questions facing sponsors of...more
A number of recent legal changes will have a notable impact on employee benefits law both now and in the future. Some of the most significant of those changes are the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision in...more
Editor's Overview - In this month's newsletter, we focus on the recent wave of guidance and case law related to the Affordable Care Act. We also discuss IRS Notice 2015-86, which provides guidance on the application of...more
In IRS Notice 2015-86, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provided guidance to sponsors and administrators of employee benefit plans regarding the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges to...more
Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2015-86, providing guidance on the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges to qualified retirement plans and health and welfare...more
This past June, the United States Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___, 135 S.Ct. 2584 (2015), that the Fourteenth Amendment (i) requires a state’s civil marriage laws to apply to same-sex couples on the...more
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark marriage-equality decision this summer (Obergefell v. Hodges), we now have full equality between same-sex and opposite-sex spouses under federal and state law. That decision affects...more
On October 21, 2015, the IRS issued proposed regulations to clarify the treatment of same-sex spouses for federal tax purposes. By way of background, in 2013, the United States Supreme Court held in United States v. Windsor...more
Following up on the Supreme Court’s decisions in both Windsor v. United States and Obergefell v. Hodges, discussed in our earlier Alerts (here and here), on October 21, 2015 the IRS issue proposed regulations clarifying that...more
Prior to the Obergefell decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, in U.S. v. Windsor, struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which mandated that federal laws only recognize opposite-sex marriages. As a result of...more