Creating an estate plan
Regardless of age, every person living and owning property is advised to create an estate plan. Basic estate planning ensures that your desires are effectively carried out when you become old or incapable of handling your own estate affairs, ensuring that your estate goes to whoever or wherever you wish after your death, and making sure your family is spared of uncertainties, expenses and confusion when you die. With an estate plan, it is clear what you want and there is no room for confusion.
Whatever you put down in your estate plan is what will be done so long your documents are valid. In this wise, it is important you know what you want and how to structure these desires of yours into your estate plan. As this process may often seem quite a big deal, it is advisable you seek the help of an estate planning lawyer NYC with years of training and practice in this field of estate planning.
The Estate planning attorney
The New York estate planning attorney is empathic and would listen to your situation, then come up with an estate plan that best satisfies your problem and desires. With the different legal documents available, he will structure an estate plan that gives you asset protection, health care planning during incapacity, and would see to it that your assets are passed on to your loved ones in the most hitch-free manner possible. He will also represent survivors of a decedent in a New York Probate Court, conduct estate administration and help in the distribution of assets.
Estate planning tools
The estate attorney can help you prepare the following basic estate planning tools:
Last Will and Testament
Your last will and testament is your written wish declaring your beneficiaries and what portion of your asset goes to each of them. Every last will must pass through probate in a Surrogate’s Court in the county where the estate is owned, and must prove to be valid before the written instructions are administered. The estate planning attorney may also be involved in this process.
Trust
A trust is a legal agreement for a trustee to hold the grantor’s asset(s) on behalf of the beneficiary. The grantor is the original owner of the asset(s) and the creator of the trust. Once the trust is funded by the asset, the asset ceases to be the property of the grantor and as such, such asset will pass down to the beneficiary outside of probate since probate is only done for assets which are in the name of the deceased. Since probate is expensive, many New Yorkers prefer using trusts instead of Wills, although trusts also have their downsides. Deciding between a will and a trust often boils down to the peculiarity of your estate and your desires. Nevertheless, it is in your best interest to seek the advice of an experienced NYC estate attorney in deciding which document offers your particular estate the most favorable benefits.
Living will
A living will spells out your end-of-life wishes.
Pour-over will
It is often necessary to create a pour-over will. Once an asset is transferred into a trust, that asset can no longer be used by the grantor to his or her own direct benefit. Say, you want to create a trust for all your assets so they can pass down to your beneficiary anytime you die without undergoing probate. You may decide to leave your bank account out of the trust so you can still use it for bill payment until the day you die. What then happens to the account at your death? A pour-over will lets you transfer such assets into your trust at the event of your death, and by so doing, that asset would also pass out of probate. The estate planning lawyer NYC can help you prepare this highly powerful document.
Health care proxy
When you become old, you may lose your ability to make sensible decisions for yourself. Hence, someone has to be named to make these decisions for you, and the health care proxy is used in naming that person and binding them to their fiduciary duties to you.
Minimizing your estate tax
New York has a $5.25 million estate tax exemption, meaning if your estate exceeds that amount, you would be required to file a New York estate tax return of up to 16%. However, a skilled estate planning attorney with legal prowess can help you find ways in minimizing these taxes.
Estate Planning Attorney near me 10030
You may be asking yourself the question, “do I really need to find an Estate Planning Attorney near me 10030?”
Of course, you do. Having an estate planning lawyer in the same county as you gives you guarantee that such lawyer is up to date with the laws that concerns you and your estate. He will, to the best of his ability, use every available legal tool in helping you actualize your estate goals.
