New York estate planning attorneys are professionals with years of experience handling estate matters in New York. Well vast in New York estate laws, estate planning lawyers offer their clients personalized services, tailored to meet the individual estate situation of each client. Having an estate plan is very important as all your assets have to be accounted for when you die and then passed on to your beneficiaries. To ensure that this process is smooth as can be, and to avoid creating confusions and conflicts among your surviving loved ones, it is highly crucial you put an estate plan in place to handle the estate distribution process, and doing this requires you creating estate planning documents such as a New York will or trust, or both. While each of these estate documents have their advantages as well as their downsides, an estate planning lawyer specialized in wills and trust NYC will help you combine these powerful documents in your estate plan in the best possible and most cost-effective way to handle every asset of yours.
Services which the New York estate planning attorney offers
The importance of having the professional services of an estate planning attorney can never be overemphasized. When you get old and weary, incapacitation may render you incapable of handling your own affairs yourself. Then you would need someone else, bound by legal agreement, to step up and handle your estate affairs on your behalf. That person has to be of your choosing, someone you trust, and you have to make such decisions now that you’re healthy. To do this, an estate planning lawyer will help you create a legal document such as a financial power of attorney, naming whoever you so choose as the person to handle your finances on your behalf.
If you have children who are minors, then there is need to plan for their financial well-being in the event of your death. Such minors would need someone of your choosing to look after their finances until they come of age, and you have to name such a person — known as a trustee — now that you’re alive. An experienced estate attorney in New York will help you create trust documents for your minors and even plan for disability.
Typical services which the NY estate planning lawyer offers include:
- Preparation of estate planning documents such as wills, trusts, durable power of attorney, living will, advanced health care directive, etc.
- Asset protection
- Helping to avoid probate through the use of revocable and irrevocable trusts
- Tax planning
- Estate administration
- Planning for charity
- Business succession planning
- Use of wealth transfer devices for easy transfer of assets, life insurance planning
- Taking advantage of the gift tax exemption law and annual exclusion
- Disability planning and heath care decisions.
Importance of having a Will
When you die leaving a valid Last Will behind, rest assured your wishes will be carried out just as you have stated. Everyone has those closest to him or her. Most commonly, these are the persons who you’d want to receive the largest portion of your estate when you pass away, but if you do not express these wishes in your estate plan, then whatever you desire would be null and void. In New York, when you die without a will, your spouse is automatically entitled to $50,000 of your estate or one-third of it as the case may be, while the rest goes to the children. If you left no kids, then your spouse receives the whole estate. The point is, this might not be exactly how you wish your estate to be disposed. To ensure your wishes are carried out and your assets distributed exactly according to your desires, do contact an estate planning lawyer NYC to help you create a valid last will in accordance of the New York state laws.
Hiring an Estate Planning Attorney near me 10027
It is in your best interest to hire an estate planning attorney that puts your interest foremost. Are you having complex assets that are difficult to value and probate, or dealing with estate tax audits? A competent estate planning attorney has experience in handling complex assets and can help you cut down on estate taxes.
Estate attorneys specialized in areas of probate may also be hired by the decedent’s family or executor to represent them in a Surrogate’s Court in matters such as will contest, settling family dispute over property disposal, and contested accountings. For help in any of these personal legal and estate matters aeound area code 10027, contact the New York estate planning attorney 10027 today.