In a decision that will affect wealth managers that serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clients, the US Supreme Court yesterday struck down controversial legislation dating from 1996.

The court, by a 5-4 majority, also denied consideration of the appeal brought against California’s Proposition 8. This decision has allowed same-sex marriages to resume in California, as they do in eleven others states and the District of Columbia.

The justices rejected a key part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, that had originally denied federal benefits to gay couples that were legally married in their states. This legislation had denied these couples of Social Security benefits to the surviving spouse, immigration rights and family leave rights.

As a result of the ruling, federal government has decided it will now recognise same-sex marriages conducted in states where the marriage is legal.

Spectrem Group, a firm operating in the wealth management space, said the Supreme Court’s move “calls for some re-evaluating of financial situations among same-sex couples, such as whether or not they want to refile their taxes as married couples”.

Before this week’s ruling, filing jointly or married filing separately were not filing options for same-sex partners. Also not allowed was the ability of one partner filing as head of household if the other partners was his/her only dependent, Spectrem said.

Spectrem Group said it will publish a report in the autumn about the issue, basing its study on a survey of 1,000 affluent investors in the LGBT community.