Amendments to Protect Yourself and Your Partner in Vital Ways by Registering as Domestic Partners

Since AB 25 came into effect in January 2002, several other laws have passed that provide additional rights to couples who register with the Secretary of State as domestic partners:
  1. Effective July 1, 2003, when one member of a registered domestic partnership dies without a will, the other domestic partner will be entitled to inherit a portion of the deceased partner’s property. If the partner who died without a will had children or other surviving close relatives, one-half to two-thirds of the property will belong to the blood relatives in ways that would not be true if the couple had been legally married. For this and other reasons, it is important to prepare wills or other estate planning documents even if you and your partner register as domestic partners with the state.
  2. Effective July 1, 2004, domestic partners will be entitled to take paid employment leave to care for a seriously ill domestic partner or a child of a domestic partner. This paid leave also will be available in connection with the birth, adoption or placement of a child in foster care with the couple. The employee will be entitled to collect 55% of his or her salary while on leave, up to $728 per week, for up to six weeks.
  3. The counties of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Marin (in addition to San Francisco and San Mateo) may elect to allow their employees’ domestic partners to receive death benefits, optional retirement allowances, and survival allowances upon the death of the employee. Each county board of supervisors must pass an authorizing resolution before these benefits will become available.
  4. If you are a senior citizen living in a senior citizen housing development, you have the right to have your registered domestic partner live with you. In many situations, after the death of the qualifying senior citizen, the surviving domestic partner has the right to continue to use the dwelling as his or her residence.
  5. Registered domestic partners now have the right to obtain certified copies of the birth or death record of their partner from the state or local registrar or county recorder. In addition, victims of domestic violence can have the incidence reports obtained for them by their registered domestic partners.
  6. The law that prohibits a will or trust from validly transferring assets to the person who drafted it now allows transfers to domestic partners who drafted those documents (as also is true for spouses).