With the winter holidays fast approaching, the thought of family festivities may be on your mind. In fact, it may be one of the only times that the entire family comes together. Some look at this as the ideal time to use the gatherings to deal with family business, including discussing estate planning. But you […]

If you don’t have a will, the law determines what happens to your assets. This is referred to as “intestacy.” Here, your assets will pass to your heirs according to New York’s intestacy statutes. Sometimes this will be in sync with what you want, but sometimes it won’t. If your assets are subject to intestacy, […]

A life estate deed is a planning tool that is a part of your overall estate plan. With this type of deed, an individual can deed real estate to someone, but reserve a life estate, which means that they have the right to occupy the property until death. With death, the property will then pass […]

Whenever someone dies, it’s never easy. It’s especially difficult when your parent dies. Not only do you have to deal with the emotional fallout that stems from losing your oved one, but your parent leaves behind a life that needs to be closed out. As their child, much of this will be your responsibility. Here […]

The pandemic has a lot of people thinking about their estate planning. One of the issues that you may consider in this planning is whether you want to create a living trust in addition to a will or instead of a will. The decision is a very personal one and will depend on your specific […]

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the nation, it’s more important than ever to create an estate plan if you haven’t or update one that is outdated. Shockingly, just a few years ago close to 72 percent of Americans had either no will or an out-of-date one. Especially in the current climate, it’s important to prepare […]

The ongoing pandemic has caused many people to start thinking about putting their affairs in order if they did not already have an estate plan in place. There is no better time than now to get your estate plan together and up to date. As people move to finalize documents they may have avoided signing […]

When planning your estate there is a choice to be made between writing a will and creating a trust. While a will transfers assets to heirs at death, trusts operate differently. The grantor typically appoints themselves the trustee and retains control of the trust during the remainder of their life. Though living trusts have become […]

When someone in New York dies without creating a will, protocols and laws exist that dictate what happens to their assets. Under the doctrine of intestate succession, a decedent’s assets that would have ordinarily passed through a will are then given to their closest living relatives. Scope of Assets Affected by Intestate Succession Usually, intestate […]