Monday, March 3, 2008

Legal matters

We met with the lawyer this morning. Michele Zavos. Peace of mind for just $1,575. It's a lot of money but I think it's worth it. She knows her stuff. We have that big tax return coming thanks to a year of home ownership, so we can afford it. We set it up so that our friend L will be the legal guardian of our kids if we both die. We wanted our kids to go to a glbt person so that they wouldn't lose the queer connection, and we think L would to a great job. But he lives in FL and as a gay man he would never be able to legally adopt our kids - only serve as legal guardian. We always tell him he should leave FL. Hopefully he will soon. We need to pick our second legal guardian in case L dies. How depressing that would be - for the two of us and L to all be dead?

We also set up who will care for our dog. Michele said it wasn't important but K thought it was really important. She said "Oh, my poor baby!" C & D will get the dog.

We decided that if we both die, and we don't have any kids (or the kids die), we will just give our estate to HRC. Previously we listed our parents, but they don't need the money and HRC does. Not that we have much money...

Michele's assistant, also maybe a lawyer so assistant maybe is not the right word, is also trying to conceive with her partner. They've been through three tries. We'll probably be in a lesbian insemination support group with her soon. Everybody we know is trying. Interestingly, the assistant/lawyer lives in VA. Michele Zavos has a repeated mantra - whatever you do, don't live in VA if you are GLBT. Yet this assistant/lawyer that works for her lives in VA and is trying to have a baby with her partner. Does she not listen to her boss? We don't even travel through VA unless we can't avoid it.

2 comments:

nutella said...

Thank you for your honesty about the process. My wife and haven't done any legal stuff yet and really have no idea what it's going to cost. You are the first one to have stated a $ amount. I guess we ought to get most of it done before we start TTC.

JK said...

I highly recommend Michele Zavos in Silver Spring. She may cost a little more, but she's definitely worth it. Previously we used Linda Perlman in Takoma Park, and it was fine, but I just got the feeling today that Michele Zavos is more on top of things. She knows the law and the best way to achieve the goals.