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Non-traditional Family Structures Challenge Modern Society

By Contributor
Law

The Decline of the Nuclear Family

By Julie A. Dialessi-Lafley, Esq.

 

Historically, a nuclear family (also known as an elementary family, atomic family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family), was the traditional family structure which is defined as a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence.

Statistically speaking, this is no longer the norm. In fact, 80% of households in the U.S. have a non-traditional family structure. Family structures that may be considered non-traditional or alternative include, but are not limited to, single-parent families (a single parent raises a child alone), cohabitation (an unmarried couple shares a household), same-sex families (two individuals of the same sex raise a family), grandparenting (grandparents raising grandchildren), and polygamy (marriage among at least three people).

Julie A. Dialessi-Lafley

Julie A. Dialessi-Lafley

“In the Baby Boom of 1960, there was one dominant family structure, with 73% of all children living in a family with two married parents in their first marriage. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this type of family, and today, less than half (46%) are in households with two married parents.”

Gay and lesbian households increased from 540,000 to 980,000 post-legalization of same-sex marriages, and multi-generational households have increased from 7 to 26%, which represents a 271% increase over a decade. The change in the common family structure from traditional to non-traditional happened quickly, and the laws have not moved as quickly to keep up with the times.

To highlight the change and how quickly it has taken place, consider that in the Baby Boom of 1960, there was one dominant family structure, with 73% of all children living in a family with two married parents in their first marriage. By 1980, 61% of children were living in this type of family, and today, less than half (46%) are in households with two married parents.

The formation of the non-traditional family, and the children that may result, can bring complex legal issues such as custody, visitation, child support, property division, estate planning, and constitutional issues, to name just a few of the most obvious ones. These are the legal issues only and do not even touch on social and emotional issues, which exist due to lack of understanding and/or acceptance in a society still rooted in traditional values.

 

Planning Is Paramount

Given how quickly the nuclear family has become the non-dominant family structure, one would think the members of non-traditional families would have all the resources they need available to them to address all the legal issues we face in our increasingly more complicated modern family society. Unfortunately, due to lack of concrete guidelines, non-traditional families are often forced to resolve these legal issues in a court process due to failure to understand the unique issues of their family structure or a lack of legal process.

By way of example, it is the unfortunate reality that some laws may not support the same federal estate or tax benefits in non-traditional households versus traditional ones. Federal benefits and retirement may not pass to non-married partners or same-sex spouses without actions taken specifically to designate beneficiaries. Proper tax planning and asset planning should be a priority in these households and relationships; however, these are areas often overlooked when dealing with the daily challenges of managing life and household dynamics.

When considering that most households have more than one income, likely have purchased real estate, have commingled assets, and may have blended families with children from other parents, non-married partners, or multi-generational households caring for children, the need to plan for the distribution of assets upon death is of paramount importance.

However, there is no specific, cookie-cutter estate plan for all non-traditional families to abide by. To ensure that property passes to your non-married partner, same-sex spouse, or non-biological and/or biological children, proper estate plans need to be put into place. These plans may include a will and trusts to ensure that goals of asset distribution are met upon a death.

In the same way, plans need to be put into place and properly documented to make sure that lifetime decisions such as health decisions, personal financial decisions, and end-of-life determinations can be made by your partner if not married, or by any person you chose. In the absence of estate planning, things may not be carried out as you would want them to be or by the people you would have selected had you taken the time to put a plan in place.

The non-traditional family should consider cohabitation agreements, prenuptial agreements, custodial agreements (if recognizable in your home state), as well as formal estate planning in order to protect themselves and their families in the event of a breakup, divorce, dissolution of a household, or death.

 

Seeking Answers

It can be difficult for partners or single parents to protect their rights as a family. There is no definitive answer to these challenges with custody and parenting arrangements. Many of the outcomes are fact driven and left to the discretion of a court when agreements cannot be reached by the parents or caregivers. When relationships break down, parties are less likely to be able to put the best interests of the children at the forefront in order to reach an agreement.

Does a non-married person who has raised a non-biological child automatically have parenting rights? Are they financially responsible for the child(ren)? Do grandparents who have been a caretakers to a grandchild get visitation if the child returns to the care of the biological parent? The answers are not as clear and obvious as you would think or hope they would be when considering the relationships that may have existed between children and caretakers of any kind.

The law, again, is fact-specific and gives great discretion to the courts in reaching a decision when parties cannot resolve these issues among themselves. Thus, while many partners find informal custodial arrangements and other systems work well for them, the majority face issues when problems arise.

Frequently, mainstream advice is given with traditional families in mind, which undoubtedly creates confusion for unconventional arrangements. All family units of any structure, but especially for certain non-traditional families, should consult knowledgeable family-law attorneys and financial professionals to develop the plans that best meet the unique needs of their chosen life.

 

Julie A. Dialessi-Lafley is a shareholder with the law firm Bacon Wilson, P.C. and chairs the firm’s Family Law department. She is a certified family law mediator, a member of the Springfield Women’s Leadership Council, a member of the United Way of Pioneer Valley board of directors, and is licensed to practice law in both Massachusetts and Connecticut; (413) 781-0560; [email protected]

Businesses Need to Understand How the Rules Are Changing

By
Accounting and Tax Planning

Recording Revenue

By Rebecca Connolly

Recording revenue is, in anyone’s mind, seen as a job well done when you complete selling your product or service or receiving a donation for your organization.

But a new revenue-recognition standard for non-public companies is effective for years ending Dec. 31, 2019 and annual periods then after, and business owners and managers must be aware of what this new standard means.

The new revenue-recognition standard, Accounting Standards Codification 605, Revenue Recognition, created a five-step process to determine when you should recognize revenue.

• Step 1: Identify a contract with a customer. This contract can include an invoice, a formal signed contract, and other various forms agreed to upon the purchase of goods or services. Once a contract has been identified, you proceed to step 2.

“Know what you are signing and know, if you are entering into a long-term contract, how to structure it in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.”

• Step 2: Identify the performance obligations (promises) in the contract. Contracts can have one or more performance obligations. An example of one performance obligation is to deliver the 10 office chairs that were ordered by a customer. An example of multiple performance obligations within a contract is a construction contract that requires a house to be built and suitable for living, a driveway to be installed, and a garage to be constructed. The key item here is to know what you are signing and know, if you are entering into a long-term contract, how to structure it in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Then you proceed to step 3.

• Step 3: Determine the transaction price. Transaction price is the amount of consideration the entity expects to be entitled to, in exchange for transferring promised goods or services to a customer, excluding amounts collected on behalf of third parties. This item concerns how much money the entity expects to receive. As one example, if you sell office chairs for $59 a chair, but there is a sale and the chairs are now $45 a chair, then the revenue the entity can expect to receive for the chair at this time is $45 a chair. Elements from step 2 and step 3 are then used in step 4.

• Step 4: Allocate the transaction price to the performance obligation in the contract. If there is only one performance obligation of the office- chair delivery, then no allocation is needed. It gets complicated when you have more than one performance obligation in a contract. The best method is to allocate the price per performance obligation in the contract itself. Continuing the example of the construction of a house, the price could be allocated at $200,000 and the garage and driveway obligation could potentially be allocated at $100,000. An important element here is to be consistent in your application of the price allocations and document your process with the allocation among performance obligations. Once prices are allocated, you can proceed to step 5.

• Step 5: Recognize revenue when (or as) the reporting organization satisfies a performance obligation. Recognizing the revenue in the amount determined in step 4 has become more of a checklist item, as, yes, we have completed the performance obligation, and now the revenue can be recorded. This step is ‘I have delivered the office chairs and have completed the performance obligation with this contract.’

Conclusion

The moral of the new revenue-recognition standard is that the rules are changing, and it is best to look at your contracts and how you record revenue now before your accountant comes in and notes your revenue is overstated by $300,000.

Rebecca Connelly, CPA is a manager for West Springfield-based Burkhart, Pizzanelli, P.C. She is involved in the accounting and consulting aspects of the practice and manages engagements of various size and complexity, including nonprofit and construction companies, manufacturing, and distributors; (413) 734-9040.

The Changing Retail Landscape

By
Opinion

Editorial

The headlines came in rapid succession, and they juxtaposed each other nicely.

The site in South Hadley’s Woodlawn Plaza that was once home to a Big Y supermarket is the proposed location of a mixed-income apartment complex. Meanwhile, in Westfield, plans were announced to convert the former Bon-Ton department store location in the Westfield Shops into a 50,000-square-foot trampoline park, complete with dodgeball courts, an American Ninja Warrior-style course, and climbing walls.

These headlines, and they’re only the latest of this nature — highlight how the retail landscape is changing, and also how this region and individual communities within it will be challenged to find new and imaginative uses for the hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space now vacant or likely to be vacant.

This is not a local problem or a regional problem. Indeed, it’s a national problem and probably an international problem: just what do we do with all that space once assigned to retail?

It’s a question that needs to be answered because, from everything we’ve gathered and from everything the experts are saying, the pendulum is simply not going to swing back the other way on this issue. Traditional retail is shrinking, and it is vanishing.

In fact, the world of retail started to change perhaps a full decade and a half ago, and the process of change has only accelerated. Fewer people are shopping in actual brick-and-mortar stores, while many of the brands that once dominated this industry — like Sears and JCPenney — have been closing stores in large numbers.

These two forces have collided in places like the Eastfield Mall, which now boasts some of the largest and most barren parking lots to be seen anywhere. Plans are being developed to turn the mall, this region’s first real suburban shopping mall (it opened more than a half-century ago), into what is being called a ‘village,’ one where people can live, work (perhaps), drop off their children at day care, see a movie, work out at a gym, eat at a restaurant, and maybe even get on a trampoline. This sounds ambitious, but it is also reality. The Eastfield Mall can never again be what it once was, so it has to become something else.

And this same phenomenon is happening all across the region. The former Big Y supermarket in South Hadley was simply not going to become another supermarket, not that the owners of the property didn’t try to lure one there. So it has to become something else. Tower Square in Springfield is never going to be the thriving retail hub it was in the ’70s ever again, so it has become the home of two colleges — and soon it will be home to a YMCA and a brewery. The Bon-Ton site was not going to house another department store — in a year or 10 years. Hence, a trampoline park.

Let’s hope there is need for other things as well, because, as we said, this trend will only accelerate. More department stores will close, more mom-and-pop stores will close, and eventually the need for large auto dealerships will subside, and we’ll need to find new uses for them. (One auto dealership in Westfield has already been converted into a gym, a restaurant, and indoor batting cages.)

This kind of imagination is going to be needed moving forward, because there are now vacant stores in malls, strip malls, and Main Streets across the region. And there will only be more of them.

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