American Civil Liberties Union: Lesbian and Gay Rights
http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRightsMain.cfm This site gives updated information about recent GLBT policy issues concerning individuals and couples.

Human Rights Campaign
http://www.hrc.org/
The Legal Center of this site provides clear and understandable explanations to questions concerning legal matters including legal documentation and state-by-state GLBT-friendliness ratings on different issues.

Lambda Legal
http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/
Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, the transgendered, and people with HIV or AIDS. Included on the website is information about advance planning documents.

National Center for Lesbian Rights
http://www.nclrights.org/
This is a great resource for anyone (not just lesbians) interested in understanding family policies, like adoption, and advance planning.

Nolo's Plain English Law Center: Marriage & Living Together
http://www.nolo.com
This site is an excellent and extensive resource. It explains in simple terms how one can plan estates and secure rights to plan for the future and why this is important. Click on "Marriage and Living Together" to find information on same-sex couples.

Advance Planning Forms online
There are numerous commercial websites that offer downloadable forms for wills and advance directives and powers of attorney. You can find many by searching the web. We use the following as examples and do not make endorsements or guarantees about their services.

There are a few sites that are specific to same-sex couples and gay and lesbian individuals. For example, Rainbow Law (http://www.rainbowlaw.com/ ) asks customers to fill out a questionnaire and uses this information to create the appropriate forms for the state of residence of the customer. This site also contains information for gay and lesbian individuals and same-sex couples about the process of executing legal documents.

Other sites are for a general audience, but do provide forms specific to same-sex couples. For example, US Legal Forms offers a mutual will for same-sex partners that can be downloaded for a fee (http://www.uslegalforms.com/).

There is also software available for creating wills and other advance planning forms. For instance, Quicken and Nolo offer such software. This software can be ordered.

Books

These books can generally be found online, from web-based bookstores, such as amazon.com or bn.com (Barnes and Noble), or online gay and lesbian bookstores, such as A Different Light Bookstore (http://www.adlbooks.com/).

A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples
Denis Clifford, Frederick Hertz, and Hayden Curry
ISBN: 0873379985; Publisher: Nolo Press; Publication Date: 12th Edition, February 2004
This book provides information about how to write living-together contracts, plan for medical emergencies, plan your estates, including sample wills and durable powers of attorney. A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples also talks specifically about healthcare directives, domestic partnerships, domestic partner benefits, the legal aspects of having and raising children and adoption.

Make Your Own Living Trust (with CDrom)
Denis Clifford and Mary Randolph
ISBN: 0873379853; Publisher: Nolo Press; Pub. Date: 6th Ed., January 2004
A very informative, detailed, and useful guide to building a Living Trust, assigning how your assets are passed on upon death. This guide also shows you how to avoid excess costs, taxation, and confusion by taking the complication out of making aLiving Trust.

Nolo's Simple Will Book, 4.0
Denis Clifford
ISBN: 087337939X; Publisher: Nolo Press; Pub. Date: 5th Ed., May 2003
This book provides detailed, step-by-step instructions and forms to show you how to make a Will. This book includes a disk with seven different wills so you can use them as examples or alter them as a beginning draft of your will.

Plan Your Estate
Denis Clifford and Cora Jordan
ISBN: 1413300731; Publisher: Nolo Press; Pub. Date: 5th Ed., October 2004
This is an excellent resource for understanding what options need to be considered for planning an estate: children, gift taxes, multiple marriages, and trust options. Also helpful is a glossary of estate-planning terms and examples of estate plans.

4 Steps to Financial Security for Lesbian and Gay Couples
Harold L. Lustig
ISBN: 0449002497; Publisher: Fawcett Book Group; Pub. Date: May 1999
This book is geared toward showing gay men and lesbians how to protect their assets.

Money Talk, A Gay and Lesbian's Guide To Financial Success
Todd J. Rainey and Scott Lankford
ISBN: 1891689754; Publisher: Gabriel Publications; Pub. Date: February 2000
"If you are looking for a book that addresses the specific financial planning needs of gay men and lesbians, this one is a good start."

Estate Planning for Gay Couples
Joan M. Burda
ISBN: 1590313828; Publisher: American Bar Association; Pub. Date: September 2004
The product description found on Amazon.com states, "The landscape concerning same-sex relationships is changing. It is vital for lawyers to stay on top of these changes. Attorneys who represent lesbian and gay clients must provide creative estate planning that protects parties, their children and their future."

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