USA – CALIFORNIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jennifer Jordan McCall, Matthew Perotti, Maria Williams and Alexandria Marx, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Children Born Out of Wedlock The marital status of one’s parents does not affect the child’s classification. A child born out of wedlock is considered a natural child. Posthumously Conceived Children These children are eligible for any of the deceased parent’s property if: • the father, in a signed and dated writing, makes the specified birth of the child clear; and • the conceived child is in utero within two years after the father’s death. Surrogacy In California, intended parents may establish their legal parental rights before the birth of the child with - out formal adoption proceedings. Upon birth of the child, the intended parents are encouraged to secure a parentage order from the court. This establishes the legal parental rights and terminates rights of the sur - rogate. 9.2 Same-Sex Marriage Same-sex marriage is recognised in California. Cur - rently, legislators in California are seeking to include the right to marriage equality in the California Con - stitution. Domestic partners may file a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the Secretary of the State. Registered domestic partners are afforded the same rights, protections, and benefits as a married couple in the State of California. 9.3 Cohabitation and Unmarried Couples California’s intestacy statute gives rights to a surviv - ing spouse or California-registered domestic part - ner. Otherwise, unmarried partners generally have no automatic intestate inheritance rights unless they are named in estate-planning documents. Unmarried partners should register their domestic partnership, or consider drafting an express agreement – such as a will or revocable trust, beneficiary designation, power of attorney, advance health care directive or HIPAA authorisation, or title plan. Registered Domestic Partners California registered domestic partners have the same California-law rights and obligations as spouses,
including surviving-partner rights. They also gener - ally have the same community-property rights as spouses. Registered domestic partners should also review estate-planning documents after termination of the partnership, because California has statutory revocation rules for former domestic partners similar to those for former spouses. Unregistered and Unmarried Partners Unregistered unmarried partners do not create com - munity property merely by cohabiting. However, Cali - fornia recognises cohabitation/property agreements between unmarried partners. Under Marvin v Marvin , express agreements between non-marital partners may be enforceable unless based on sexual services, and courts may consider implied contract or equitable theories in appropriate cases. . Federal tax law limits charitable contributions of cash to a public charity to 60% of the donor’s federal adjusted gross income (AGI). California limits con - tributions of cash to a public charity to 50% of the donor’s federal AGI. The federal and California limit on non-cash contributions, such as stocks, to a pub - lic charity is 30% of AGI. The federal and California limit on contributions of cash to a private founda - tion is 30% of AGI. The federal and California limit on noncash contributions to a private foundation is 20% of AGI. If a person has insufficient income in a given year to maximise the contribution, the person has five additional years to apply any unused portion of the deduction as a carry-forward. Deductions for charitable giving is designed to encourage individuals to support goals which benefit the public good. Given California’s high state income tax and the concentra - tion of wealthy individuals there, charitable giving is an important component of estate planning for wealthy Californians. 10. Charitable Planning 10.1 Charitable Giving
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