estate planning, guardianship for domestic partner diagnosed with alzheimer's disease, gay couple

Some attorneys focus their practices on certain areas of law or certain clientel. Your situation requires someone who fouses on Medicare and Medicaid planning, as well as estate planning for same sex couples. You can look in gay-friendly publications and search engines for an attorney that advertises these areas of expertise. Medicare and Medicaid planning is also sometimes called Elder Law.

I wish I could refer you to someon specific, but I am not in New York. If you have trouble finding someon qualified, email me and I will see if I can track a good attorney down for you through a contact I have in NY.

First of all make sure of your actual legal status. Many people think they're domestic partners when their legal status is not recognized. Look at the website: http://www.cityclerk.nyc.gov/html/marriage/domestic_partnership_reg.shtml.

Then you're going to need several things. You need wills, powers of attorney, and medical powers of attorney. One of the issues that comes up with progressive disease processes is health care coverage. This is going to be critical. I would suggest finding an attorney who is really good at estate planning and ask for a consult. Ask the attorney how familiar they are with tax and estate issues for non-marital couples and how comfortable they are with gay couples. If you get a negative on either question move on. The Federal Defense of Marriage Act will trump a lot of the issues that come up in estate planning for married couples so despite NY domestic partnership laws some things will not help. For instance, a married couple will receive a step-up in basis on the death of spouse. The same is not true for couples in domestic partnerships. While I agree that finding a gay-friendly attorney is a good idea the best thing you can do is find a really, really good estate planning attorney.

They may have a number of things you can do now to minimize tax burdens while providing for care etc. Above all, you need to make sure that while mental competency is not an issue that a medical Power of Attorney and Financial Power of attorney are duly executed. Make sure that there is at least an alternate person listed, preferably two so that if you are incapacitated there is still someone who your partner would be comfortable with in the position to make decisions if she is unable to make those decisions. I would also recommend that the Power of Attorney not be a "springing" power of attorney which comes into effect at the incapacity of the principal. In some jurisdictions there is a problem with these, particularly with non-married persons because the non-spouse may not have the authority under Federal law (See DOMA & HIPAA) to get the medical records to prove incapacity. It's a mess. While I can't advise you directly on a NY atty I would strongly advise you to find someone reliable soon. Ask friends and family for references. Another good resource might be the Alzheimer's association. They have branches all over the country and may be a good referral.

I'm sorry for your problems. I wish you and your partner the best.