AN IMPORTANT AND SOMETIMES THANKLESS JOB There are times in life when we all will have to do or engage in a thankless job. One such time is when a close friend or a family member asks you to be the executor of their estate. The difference between an executor…
SPRING CLEANING TIME MEANS CLEARING OLD PAPERWORK With tax day over and the need to collect and forward any number of financial and tax documents to the government and with the coming of spring, it is time to turn to spring cleaning. The question should be asked, what paperwork…
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PERSON AND STEPS TO TAKE As noted in a previous blog, being an executor of an estate can be a thankless job. There are ways, however, that can allow you to make the job and life of an executor easier and less painful. It is a…
RULE OF HALVES Many people find themselves going into nursing homes earlier than expected and without the appropriate planning. Things happen in life to derail our best laid or thought out plans. With more and more elderly Americans living longer, the need for nursing home care is increasing and will…
LARGE NEED TO REDUCE AND PREVENT FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION The American Bankers Association is looking to serve a large market that is only getting larger by the day. At the same time, they are working to shore up the larger financial markets in a larger effort to prevent financial fraud…
COMMON PROBLEM There is much talk lately of how to deal with email, facebook, twitter accounts, et cetera of people who pass away. For those of us who have friends or family who passed away and see their facebook account send a reminder to all of their friends on their…
PRINCE APPARENTLY DID NOT HAVE A WILL The world learned recently that Prince joined the long list of celebrities who passed away intestate or without a will. Some of the names on the list are surprising, others not so. The Honorable Salvatore Phillip “Sonny” Bono, Michael Jackson, Howard Hughes, Abraham…
As was outlined in the most recent blog posting, if you compare the costs and benefits of creating a will now versus passing away intestate, there is no doubt that the benefit is huge and the cost is small. It is thus high time to explore New York’s intestacy laws…
FURTHER CHANGES MAY BE NEEDED When a person receives an asset via the probate process, the transaction must be reported to the IRS, even if it does not trigger any tax liability as to the estate or the recipient. This is because the IRS needs to track the basis of…
ORDER OF PAYMENT It should not be a surprise to anyone that when someone passes away, their estate must pay for all legally binding outstanding debt owed by the decedent just prior to passing. New York as well as just about every other jurisdiction has laws that address how the…