Estate Planning

If you’re like most people, you have the best of intentions with regard to how you want your estate distributed when you die or your affairs handled should you become incapacitated. Unfortunately, without proper planning, your best intentions may not be enough. Here are six of the most common estate planning mistakes we have seen people make: Failing to plan. The biggest mistake is failing to create a plan in the first place. Without an estate plan, your assets will be distributed according to the [...]

We hope the New Year has been good for everyone, thus far.  The beginning of a new year is a great time to create a comprehensive estate plan or to have an estate plan “checkup” of your existing estate plan to make sure it is up to date. I recently met with a prospective client who contacted the firm to discuss creating his legacy plan.  After discussing the various planning strategies, the prospective client said he did not see the need for a power of [...]

At our firm, we meet with many individuals who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia.  One common misconception is having an Alzheimer or dementia diagnosis means that an individual does not have the mental capacity to make planning decisions.  However, this is not necessarily true. Having Alzheimer’s disease or dementia does not automatically mean that you lack the mental capacity to make planning decisions, but you need to act quickly after diagnosis. In New York, the mental capacity required to execute planning documents varies [...]

When meeting with prospective clients who are interested in creating a comprehensive estate plan, we frequently discuss using an irrevocable trust.  Initially, people often wonder about the value of using irrevocable trusts.  Key benefits of using irrevocable trust are: Asset protection from future creditors of beneficiaries Preservation of step-up of basis upon death of the grantor Ability to select whether the grantor or the beneficiaries of the trust will be taxable as to trust income Ability to design who will receive the net distributable income [...]

Today let’s discuss end-of-life care decisions.  I know that no one likes to think about death; however, having a plan in place for end-of-life care is an important part of each client’s estate plan.  Many of our clients will ask, what exactly does end-of-life care mean? End-of-life care is designed to make a patient comfortable, physically and emotionally, at the end of their life.  Caregivers are not usually focused on curing any illnesses, but rather carrying out the wishes of the patient when death is [...]