This Philly lawyer is helping LGBTQ couples plan their estates to further protect their marriages under the Trump administration

Wills, hospital visitation, power of attorney — they are often associated with sickness or death. But for one Philly lawyer, those documents are actually about living.

Living proudly and more securely as an LGBTQ couple in the United States.

Estate planning allows couples to stay legally bound regardless of any threats to same-sex marriage at the national level under President Donald Trump’s administration or a conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court, said Angela Giampolo, an attorney who specializes in estate planning for LGBTQ couples in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“Most estate planning attorneys only care about death and disability, right? The majority of my documents are actually about living. My documents are [about] how a marginalized community, how the LGBTQ community, goes about living more seamlessly in this country,” Giampolo, the founder of the Giampolo Law Group, said in an interview.

Countless same-sex couples have come to Giampolo’s firm over the last 17 years for estate planning and her services in LGBTQ law, but especially since Trump’s election in November 2024, estate planning has been an all-consuming — but rewarding — mission, Giampolo said.

Her clients are often afraid as they see LGBTQ rights gradually being eroded at the national level, Giampolo said, but she hopes her firm’s services can make them feel prepared and let them exhale a sigh of relief.

“It’s all day every day right now,” Giampolo said.

The Supreme Court has been asked to consider taking on a case that could overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Trump has rescinded executive orders issued by President Joe Biden that offered protections to the LGBTQ community, and he issued an order that recognizes only two sexes — male and female — in the United States, on top of rhetoric that marginalizes those in the LGBTQ community.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Pennsylvania more than a decade ago after a federal judge struck down the state’s ban in 2014, one year before Obergefell became the law of the land. But Democratic lawmakers say that this ruling needs to be codified in state law to protect same-sex couples amid uncertainty about rights at the federal level.

Giampolo said her services offer a layer of protection and security in the face of Trump’s return to office. On the day after the 2024 election, Giampolo blogged on her website about what LGBTQ folks should do next — estate planning was No. 1.

It is not a new tool in the LGBTQ community, but estate planning has become an even more urgent one lately as couples vie to prepare for any erosion of rights at the national level. Giampolo said the documents legally bond a couple together, giving them “power” in addition to marital privileges. It also offers protections during international travel to countries that might not accept marriage equality, she said.

“Estate planning documents give you power. Marriage gives you privilege,” she said. “We deserve them both.”

Giampolo’s clients have a deep understanding of that power.

Before Lisa LaGreca met her wife, the Rev. Allison Burns-LaGreca, in 2008, LaGreca’s previous partner of roughly 18 years passed away. “Back then, there were no rights for us,” LaGreca said. Their affairs were not in order, so she did not qualify for her partner’s pension and lost their house.

That experience, and the prospect of Trump’s election, were the impetus for LaGreca and Burns-LaGreca, of Stone Harbor, N.J., to plan their estate with Giampolo. Establishing each other as their healthcare proxies was especially important.

“[Giampolo] helps us walk through the fear right now that we all have, in a way that brings us more comfort without negating the reality of the dangerous times we are living in,” Burns-LaGreca said.

Giampolo moved to the United States from Canada in 1999, and she started her firm a year after graduating from Temple University Beasley School of Law.

She became particularly passionate about estate planning work and marital rights after the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, a legal and legislative battle over Schiavo’s end-of-life plans that stretched from the 1990s into the early 2000s.

“If 20 years ago, a straight, married, cis couple could not effectuate the wishes that they knew they had for each other, because it wasn’t in writing, what made us think — the LGBTQ community, long before marriage equality — that we had that power?" Giampolo said.

Seventeen years after starting her firm, she said, she is shocked how things have changed for the worse.

“If you would have told me 17 years ago that things would be worse off in this country than when I started my law firm, I would not believe you,” Giampolo said

In addition to her firm, Giampolo founded Caravan of Hope, which provides legal services to LGBTQ folks in underserved areas of the country, and she makes educational social media videos on LGBTQ rights. Her firm has trademarked “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way,” and her license plate reads “LGBT LAW.”

Chelsea Marti, a Giampolo client who lives in Pittsburgh, described the lawyer’s style as “proactive,” something that was essential given the sense of urgency she felt to protect her wife and her child in a swing state under the Trump administration.

“I feel like a lot more security for my family should things continue to change,” Marti said.

That sense of security is what Giampolo strives for each day.

“The main thing that I keep telling folks is: ‘Don’t be scared, just be prepared,’” Giampolo said.