Why LGBTQ+ couples are racing to do estate planning right now: ‘I don’t know an LGBTQ person that isn’t nervous’

‘Marriage gives you privilege. Estate planning gives you power,’ says one estate-planning lawyer. Here are some LGBTQ-focused tips.

Published: June 28, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. ET

After Stephanie Biscardi came out to her mom as a lesbian when she was a teenager in the 1990s, the two had an altercation that led to years of mistrust and no contact. 

The Philadelphia-based healthcare professional still wasn’t in touch with her parents when she first started planning for her estate in the mid-2000s, and she wasn’t sure when they would speak again. Biscardi made the decision at the time to disinherit her mother, thinking, “What happens to me if I die? What happens if I’m left to people that don’t want to be in my life?” The trust she signed at the time included predecease clauses that made it difficult for her mother to challenge the inheritance.