Relationships Talk

Thompson Square, the husband-and-wife duo made up of Keifer and Shawna Thompson, have been married 19 years. The couple, who will release their third studio album, Masterpiece, on Friday, June 1, have learned plenty after almost two decades living and working together, and are now passing that wisdom on to others.

“Make sure you’re friends first,” Keifer tells PopCulture.com. “Friends, they go through all kinds of different things. You fight with your friends and if you’re real friends, you can punch them in the face one day and you’re drinking a beer the next day. That’s what we do a lot. You just kind of get through everything. When you have that friend base, that friend foundation, even when you don’t love that person, you always like them.

“It’s a thing with us,” he continues. “I think we are best friends. We haven’t been apart in probably two weeks at a time in the 19 years that we’ve been married. We’ve literally been together this whole time. I think most people would probably like to spend more time with their friend than their spouse. I know I would. But it just so happens that it’s the same person. I think that’s really a huge key to our success as far as a couple is just being buddies. If I want to go out and do something without her, I sort of start thinking, ‘Well, I’d kind of like here to be here.’ So that’s a big part of it, I think.”

The couple met at a singing competition, where the sparks instantly flew.

“It was a weekly contest that they had,” Shawna recalls. “When I first moved to town, that was how I met people. I wasn’t in school or anything ’cause I just moved to Nashville from high school, graduating high school. I think it was on a Wednesday night. There was a contest Monday night at the Nashville Palace and the Wednesday night one at the Nashville Nightlife. That’s where we met and we’ve literally been together ever since that night.”

Now also parents to two-year-old Cooper, Keifer wrote the title track of Masterpiece, which says, “Shakespeare sure knew how to write down / Words that will live throughout time / And that Eiffel Tower’s still standing /Was built to be one of a kind / Da Vinci’s got his Mona Lisa / And Beethoven’s got his symphonies / But you’re my masterpiece,” in honor of their child.

“It’s been an absolute blessing to have him in our life,” says Keifer. “So I just really started thinking about him and comparing him to other masterpiece-type situations and things that we think about when we hear that term. To me, he’s as important as these worldly global achievements.”

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Thompson Square will spend much of the next several months on the road, as a family of three, performing all over the country. Find a list of all of their upcoming shows on their website.

Photo Credit: ThompsonSquare.com

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Residents at Porter Hills shared their best marriage advice with me, Kamady Rudd, before I tied the knot!

I promised to come back once my wedding photos came in and share a few, as long as they brought theirs as well!

They definitely delivered!

Check out their entire story in the video above!

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The Gospel star and his wife have been married for 22 years, and met at a waterpark. You’ve got to die to yourself, and your wants, said Kirk to NAIJ.

“I love being married to her. And the fear of a lifeless boring life with no fun and youthful fire was a life that had to be created by the both of us. See, men don’t want to adjust, to bend, to die. That’s the word; die. Not in some dreadful dark cloud type of way, but to take the focus off of yourself and realize that you’re not the best YOU that you can be until you find that soul mate that ignites that better you.”

Don’t just be a wife, be a girlfriend, Franklin told Madame Noire.

“I think that as a culture we kind of shy away from counseling and therapy, but it’s important,” she said. “It says that you love each other enough, love yourself enough to get the help that you need. And so we’ve done counseling; it has saved our marriage. We pray together and I’m not only his wife, but I’m his girlfriend.”

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples nationwide could legally wed in June 2015, and gay couples have been flocking to churches and courthouses ever since.

A 2017 Gallup poll found 10.2 percent of gay couples in the U.S. are now legally married.

Financial implications are likely not at the top of the list for gay couples deciding to declare their devotion in matrimony, but there are several to consider.

Some may not be beneficial. Some are. And the biggest issues for married gay couples, just as with married straight couples, should be retirement planning, estate planning and tax planning, experts say.

At the top of the beneficial list for gay couples marrying?

“The survivor’s Social Security benefits is the big one,” said Bill Moran at Merrill Lynch’s D.C. office. “If you’re fortunate enough to have a retirement plan where there is a pension benefit, then that can be transferred from spouse to spouse.”

“And the other big issue is gifting. Spouses are able to leave an unlimited amount of money between spouses, and if you’re not married, that doesn’t happen,” he said.

Beware the ‘marriage penalty tax’

Incomes also matter.

A big difference in what each partner makes can muck up the works, especially with the IRS.

“The big one that people come back to is the marriage penalty tax,” Moran said. “It is something you need to sit down with your financial adviser and figure out if you’re better off being married or not being married.”

He added: “You could be subject to not getting some of the tax exclusions that would have worked to your advantage if you were not married. In particular if there is a big variance of income between both individuals.”

Moran encourages gay couples to discuss the marriage penalty tax with a tax adviser to have a clear understanding of the implications, but he said that shouldn’t be the sole reason against getting married.

Considerations include loss-limit deductions on things such as investment property, IRA and retirement account deductions, and other tax planning situations that can become significant considerations when one partner earns much more than the other.

“Access to Social Security benefits is good, but overall tax implications can be a surprise,” said Alexandria resident Jacob Flinck, who married his longtime partner in 2016. “Double income, no children — ouch.”

When combining the income of the two spouses, it may put them both into a higher tax bracket, thus producing additional tax liabilities.

Also consider homeownership, retirement

For unmarried gay couples with a big variance in incomes, homeownership could also be a potential pitfall

“A non-married couple that owns their house with joint tenants with right survivorship, the surviving individual will receive that house when the first one passes away, but there could be some gift consequences, depending on how the money went into paying for the house and who put more money into it versus who did not,” Moran said.

There are also retirement accounts to consider.

Married couples can pass IRAs or 401(k)s to one another at death without triggering taxes.

If you die with money in your retirement accounts, the IRS begins taxing that money as soon as your beneficiaries withdraw the money and forces a withdrawal within a set amount of time, but an exception exists for distributions to spouses allowing the money to keep growing with deferred tax.

Health decisions: ‘Families can … be a mine field’

Another consideration is health care.

More and more companies offer health care coverage to their employees’ domestic partners. Depending on company policy for family coverage, legal marriage guarantees it.

There is also a financial benefit for surviving spouses in a health saving account, since that money can be transferred to the surviving spouse.

Likewise, a married couple in a joint health savings account can contribute more pretax dollars.

Married couples, straight or gay, also legally speak for each other in terms of medical decisions made. Unmarried couples, either straight or gay, do not automatically have that legal representation.

For gay couples who choose not to marry, that is easily addressed through a medical power of attorney, or advanced medical directive or health care proxy, a legally binding document that should not only be drafted and certified, but readily available in the event of an emergency.

“Some states, such as Virginia, maintain an online database, which provides health care providers a place to turn to look up a patient’s documents,” said Raymond Quianzon, a tax attorney in the District.

“Families can often be a mine field to navigate during a situation where patients cannot speak for themselves, and one can avoid a battle between parents, siblings and life partners by spelling out one’s intentions ahead of time with a simple legal document,” Quianzon said.

Power of attorney can cover both health care and financial decisions, should one unmarried partner become incapacitated.

The bottom line is that one size most definitely does not fit all gay couples when it comes to the financial implications of marriage.

The best advice for gay couples planning to wed is simply to get advice.

Sitting down with a financial planner and a tax attorney is not a big expense, and knowing what to expect before saying “I do” can avoid a number of unexpected surprises.

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