new york estate plan

Checklist for Reviewing Your Estate Plan

Published on: March 22, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Comprehensive estate planning should be a continuing process. It is important to review your estate plan periodically, especially after major life events occur. An experienced estate planning attorney that helps you review your comprehensive estate plan as part of their service can make sure that you address changing needs and circumstances. The following can also provide a framework for you to start thinking about what to look for when reviewing your estate plan.

Start with Your Will

This is often a good place to start in creating your estate plan and in reviewing it. As time goes on, you are likely to experience a number of changes. Your family may grow to include additional beneficiaries. You are also likely to acquire a number of different assets. An effective Will will take all of this into consideration and include detailed instructions for distributing the assets within it.

Turning Down an Inheritance

Published on: March 20, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There are many reasons why discussing your comprehensive estate plan with your beneficiaries is important. Not only can it help clarify your decisions and provide the reasoning for some choices that may otherwise cause conflict and strife, but it can prepare beneficiaries for their role in the estate plan.

Sometimes, circumstances arise in which a beneficiary may not want the inheritance that is being left to them or it may simply not be practical to accept it. When these situations arise, the beneficiary may have the option of turning down – or disclaiming – the inheritance.

Reasons for Disclaiming an Inheritance

The Role of a Trust Protector

Published on: March 17, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Comprehensive estate planning is a long-term process. It is not complete simply because the many pieces of your estate plan have been considered and put into place. Your estate plan must be reviewed periodically, and with so much at stake it must also be protected. In addition to taking important basic precautions to protect your estate plan, you may also benefit from an additional form of protection by enlisting a trust protector.

What is a trust protector?

For estate plans that have a trust in place, and especially for those with several different trusts in place, it is important to ensure that trusts are administered in a legal way that meets your goals for establishing the trust. When you establish a trust, you must also designate a trustee. Trustees are entrusted with administering a trust according to the terms of the trust and the goals you have established for that trust.

Planning for Incapacity

Published on: March 15, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

A comprehensive estate plan is more than just a Last Will and Testament coupled with a trust. In includes important aspects that require careful planning for a long period of time. For instance, considering long-term medical care as part of your financial outlook and retirement planning is an important part of your estate plan because it can help safeguard assets and provide a source of financial support for your long-term needs so you can avoid draining assets from your estate to pay for unexpected costs. However, you should also consider planning for challenges like incapacity to ensure the integrity of your estate.

Tools for Planning

A durable power of attorney can help protect your rights and assets in the event of incapacitation. These documents nominate an individual to make important legal and financial decisions for you, especially in relation to your assets. The individual you nominate can work within the authority you provide them with to protect assets within your estate.

Talking to Your Spouse About Estate Planning

Published on: March 12, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

While comprehensive estate planning is an important discussion, it is not typically one families have while sitting around the dinner table or enjoying family game night. The fact is that estate planning can be a difficult topic to bring up, and discussions about the approaches you and your spouse will take can be even more challenging.

However, talking to your spouse about the importance of estate planning – especially if you have a family to provide for – is something that has to happen at one point or another if you and your spouse want to ensure the integrity of your estate and the assets within it. The following tips might help you broach the subject.

Be Clear About Your Objectives

Potential Changes for Retirees Could Mean Changes for Your Estate Plan

Published on: March 10, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The impact of the newest tax reform efforts will likely take a long time to settle in. However, there are many potential short-term changes that could impact retirees in the coming years. That means that reviewing and revising your estate plan could be an essential component of being prepared for the effects of new tax approaches. Recently, Marketwatch.com published an article giving some insight to some of these changes.

Changes to Property Tax Deductions

Under the new tax plan, only $10,000 of property tax can be deducted federally. That means that retires may more readily consider the impact this deduction has on their tax liability. Many retirees may consider moving from sates with higher property tax to ones with lower property tax in order to take advantage of the deduction but avoid spending additional money in property taxes that cannot be recouped.

Late-In-Life Divorce Challenges and Your Estate Plan

Published on: March 3, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Divorce is never an easy experience, no matter what age it occurs at. However, individuals going through a late-in-life divorce may be even more surprised at some of the challenges this experience can present. Many of the difficulties experienced by older individuals that make the choice to get divorced can have a significant impact on their estate plans. A recent article from Marketwatch.com provides some insight as to how a late-in-life divorce can impact your estate plan from those that have experienced it.

Difficult Job Market

While the economy may be on the road to recovery, history has shown us that can change at any moment. Even in the best of economic times, finding a job that can help maintain the standard of living you are accustomed to or want to experience can be very difficult at any age. According to individuals that provided commentary for the article, this is an exceptionally difficult task for older individuals. The problem may be compounded for spouses that have been out of the job market for a longer period of time, or who may not meet the educational requirements that many positions now demand.

Preventing Disagreements from Unraveling Your Estate Plan

Published on: February 23, 2018 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Comprehensive estate planning is challenging, and the process is unique for every couple and individual. Most people put a lot of time and energy into crafting an appropriate estate plan, including working with an experienced estate planning attorney to make sure that the estate planning mechanisms they want to put in place comply with applicable law and will accomplish the person’s goals for his or her assets. We have recently written about some warning signs that your estate plan may be at risk of being challenged, but there are steps you can take to minimize that risk.

Work with an Experienced Estate Planning Attorney

Preparation is key in estate planning. Not only can being prepared help you ensure that the assets you have worked hard for are secure, but it can also help you avoid unwarranted challenges to your estate plan. Working with an experienced estate planning attorney can help you make sure there are no legal loopholes in your estate plan and that it complies with both federal and state law. This in itself can help avoid may challenges to an estate plan. The earlier you start to engage in comprehensive estate planning, the less likely your estate plan will be challenged on technical and legal grounds because you can avoid many claims of undue influence or issues related to your state of mind when creating your estate plan.

Preventing Undue Influence in a Will

Published on: October 5, 2017 | by Ettinger Law Firm

A last will and testament is a very important document detailing the final wishes of a deceased person and New York probate courts give great deference to the language contained in a deceased individual’s decrees. One of the limited ways interested parties to an estate can challenge the directives contained in a last will and testament is to claim the deceased was not of sound mind and body at the time the document was executed, due to the undue influence of an individual attempting to take advantage of the situation and enrich himself or herself.

New York’s Surrogate Courts have very limited instances in which someone can contest the deceased’s wishes to disperse his or her property to the beneficiaries of the estate and asserting undue influence is often one of the most difficult to prove. The petitioner must prove to the court the testator somehow could not escape the influence of someone with a close, personal relationship to the deceased.

Additionally, the individual petitioning the court to invalidate the will must be an interested party, meaning he or she must have a legal claim to the deceased’s estate as a relative, usually a spouse or child. Under New York inheritance laws, spouses and children are typically granted a certain share or proportion of the estate and are therefore given standing to interject as an interested party.

The Basics of a Revocable Trust

Published on: February 17, 2017 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There can be a lot of confusing terms involved in comprehensive estate planning. Estate plans are meant to be individual and flexible, and a New York estate planning attorney can provide you with a variety of options that help you create a plan that works for you and your wishes. One option that an estate planning attorney might present is a revocable trust, sometimes referred to as a living trust or a revocable living trust. The following provides some basic information about what these trusts are and how they operate.

What is a revocable trust?

Trusts are agreements between you and a third party in which you allow the third party, often referred to as a trustee, to hold assets for your beneficiaries. There are a variety of different kinds of trusts that each have different nuances that may work best for you. However, revocable trusts are often used in estate planning. A revocable trust is a trust you can create during your lifetime that may help you manage and protect your assets if you become ill or incapacitated. The American Bar Association notes that you may name yourself as trustee while also selecting a co-trustee, should you choose to do so. As the name states, revocable trusts can usually be created to be revoked or changed as you see fit. Revocable trusts should not be confused with irrevocable trusts which have distinct characteristics, especially related to taxes.