Q: I live in a state which does not have gay-friendly life insurance. How can my domestic partner receive benefits upon my death?

A: With states where the policies are more strict and it’s impossible to find truly gay-friendly life insurance, it takes a little more of a creative streak to do what’s best for you and your partner. Typically, if you find yourself in a situation where your state laws do not allow your partner to be a beneficiary, then you would have to get the insurance policy with a trust and include the trust as a beneficiary; the trust would then leave the money to your partner.

If you’re having trouble figuring out how to get a gay-friendly life insurance policy, then I recommend you sit down with an insurance advisor to talk about it; you should be able to find a gay friendly one through your local GLBT community center or advocacy organization. Also, when you ask for advisors, you should request information on attorneys who are gay friendly as well, so that you can get legal help with setting up the trust and so on.