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For people around the world, New Year’s Day marks a fresh beginning and the start of a brighter future. The holidays bring about a feeling of family and togetherness, resulting in innumerable proposals on Christmas Eve—the number one holiday for proposals. For many more, the New Year’s Eve celebration is the perfect time to start a future together. No matter when your significant other accepted, after all of the fireworks and the celebrating has subsided, many same sex unions are left wondering, “What is next for us?”

The issue of same-sex marriage is now resolved nationwide, with the Supreme Court’s June 27 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Same-sex couples can marry in any state, and their marriages must be recognized by all other states. Same-sex marriage has been legal in California since 2013, but the Supreme Court ruling does have an effect on same-sex couples married in California.

The WINDSOR decision, striking down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an unconstitutional violation of the Fifth Amendment, had a significant impact on estate planning for same sex couples. The decision results in Estate planning changes in the following areas: