Estate planning connotes the numerous installments made in present time to oversee the proper management and bequest of your estate after you die. It is an important line of action for every estate owner, as you want to make sure your loved ones, heirs to your assets are well taken care of. An estate plan is the only way to guarantee this.
Estate planning documents
An estate planning lawyer NY will help you prepare the following documents suitable for estate plan
- Last will and testament: A last will and testament is a basic estate planning document on which you express your wishes concerning how you want your assets distributed when you are gone. You can decide to leave assets for anyone of your choice, including your spouse, parents, children, grandchildren, friends, charity, or even the government. However, your will must be written in the right terms to explicitly convey your directives
- Living trust: A trust is a legal document that holds your assets and grant power to an individual of your choice known as a trustee to manage your estate for your eventual beneficiaries. Only a competent attorney can assist you in creating and executing a trust that would afford you the complete benefits of the trust. Trusts are always created to reduce taxes, safeguard assets from creditors, and preserve eligibility for government benefits. In place of a Will a living trust is advantageous as it doesn’t undergo probate.
- Durable Power of attorney: this is a document that grants power to an individual preferably a professional with credibility to make financial decisions on your behalf should become incapacitated and unable to make them. This document fills the gap that come with the event of incapacitation and helps to serve your best interests even at this time.
- Health proxy: similar to a durable power of attorney a health care proxy grants power to an individual of choice to make healthcare decisions for you when you are unable to decide due to incapacitation.
An estate planning lawyer NY will offer suitable documentation and due representation in the court of law. Should probate arise, he will prepare you and make sure to mitigate costs and complications.
FAQS:
1. What is probate?
Probate is a court process of verifying the authenticity of a last will and testament. It is usually a long and resource consuming process if you lack professional assistance from a probate lawyer.
2. Is probate compulsory?
You can only probate a will when the decedent died possessing assets worth $30,000 or more, excluding assets for which there are designated beneficiaries.
3. How long does probate proceeding take?
A probate process may take a few weeks depending on the schedule of the court. And it could take a longer time when there are complications.
Building a living trust will help you avoid this resource consuming process of probate. You only need to hire a Trust Estate Attorney Long Island to help you prepare this legal document for containing your assets.
Non-probate assets
Whether or not you have a will, the following assets will pass outside probate in Brooklyn:
- Life insurance – You most likely already named a beneficiary in your life insurance policy, so it’s useless naming another beneficiary of this same asset in your will. It may ultimately lead to discrepancy.
- Retirement accounts, such as 401(k) and IRAs – Also has a designated beneficiary
- Transfer-on-death bank accounts – has a designated beneficiary who the funds must go directly to when the owner dies
- Assets in a trust – assets kept in a trust will pass directly to the beneficiaries regardless of whether there is a will or not
- Real property held by joint tenancy with rights of survivorship – The property will go directly to your joint owner when you pass away regardless of what the will says.
How a trust works
A trust is an empty legal entity at creation, it becomes a legal container when assets are transferred into it. This power to hold is activated by the trust creator known as the grantor who is also the estate owner. This document works operates on a distinguished asset-owner separation, where the trust becomes the asset owner and the grantor manages and modifies it during his lifetime, management can continue in his best interest for designated beneficiaries even after his death. This is possible as the document allows him to appoint a credible individual known as a trustee to manage these assets for the eventual beneficiaries.