If a person with a 401(k) plan dies, the tax implications for the beneficiary depend on whether or not the beneficiary is a legal spouse. If the beneficiary is a legally married spouse, then he or she may roll over the total amount of the decedent’s account into an IRA with no tax implications except applicable estate taxes. No distribution must occur; the surviving spouse can maintain the funds in an IRA until April of the year following the year in which he or she turns 70 1/2—the age at which withdrawals from retirement accounts become mandatory. (more…)

In a free market system, income is a critical determinant in the quality of life one enjoys in retirement, including quality of care for those elders in need of caregiving. Those serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender elders need to take into account the impact of the unequal treatment same-sex couples experience under policies regulating retirement income. For example: (more…)

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in same-sex partnerships are not eligible for the Social Security spousal benefit or the survivor benefit. This lack of eligibility costs gay elders hundreds of millions of dollars in income per year. The September 11th terrorist attacks illustrated the unfairness of this policy, as same-sex survivors of victims were denied Social Security survivor benefits as well as funds from the victims’ compensation fund administered by the U.S. Justice Department. (more…)

Because gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people can still be legally discriminated against in employment in most of the country, and because gay couples are not treated equally under Social Security, pension income is an important policy issue affecting gay elders. Contrary to a widely held stereotype of gay affluence, gay men and lesbians earn no more than heterosexual men and women. In fact, gay men earn about 15% to 20% less than heterosexual men. Lesbians earn the same as heterosexual women, but because women on average earn less than men, lesbian couple households earn significantly less than heterosexual couple households (Klawitter and Flatt 1998). (more…)