Estate Planning
We understand that planning your complex estate requires more than just writing a will. We will closely consult with you to create a personalized plan for all the final phases of your life’s journey. From end-of-life care to distribution of your assets, we will ensure that your wishes will be carried out quickly, professionally, and, most importantly, correctly.
Already Have a Will? Do You Know the Real Cost of Probate?
If you only rely a will to pass on your estate, the state will require that your will be administered through surrogates court in a process called probate. Your assets cannot be completely distributed until the probate process is complete. The average time required to probate a will in New York is 9-18 months. This can leave your loved ones in a costly limbo while they wait to receive their inheritance. If you have assets that need immediate management after your passing, such as businesses or real property, Probate can cause bills to pile up and profits to be lost while your successors wait for the court to process your estate.
Our Goal Is Simple. Keep Your Estate Out of Probate.
Through a combination of trust documents, lifetime transfers, and pay on death accounts, we use our expertise in estate planning to keep your assets out of the courts and in the hands of your loved ones. By using these tools, your assets can pass directly to your successors without waiting for the court to approve your final wishes.
Your Estate Plan is More Than Just Inheritance
Empower Your Loved Ones to Guide Your Care
A will dictates what happens to your assets upon your death, but what happens when you need to trust others to manage your affairs while you’re still alive? A comprehensive estate plan should prepare your loved ones to care for you should the need arise. When you work with us to prepare your estate, we will draft personalized healthcare proxies, powers of attorney, and HIPAA release forms that empower your loved ones to make important decisions about your health and finances when you can no longer do so. These documents allow you to appoint trusted individuals to act on your behalf and to specify your wishes for your end-of-life care should you be rendered incapacitated
Protect Your Assets From Medicaid Before It Is Too Late
If you have ever looked into the cost of in-home senior services, assisted living facilities, or nursing homes, you already know how prohibitively expensive end-of-life care can be. If you ever end up needing any of these kinds of care, you will most definitely want Medicaid footing the bill. Unfortunately, in order to qualify for assistance through Medicaid, your total assets need to have a combined value of about $33,000 for an individual and about $44,000 for a married couple. If you own a home anywhere in New York, you almost certainly do not qualify for Medicaid assistance. Medicaid is also granted a “lookback” period of five years. This means you cannot sell off all of your assets in the months leading up to when you need elder care services to qualify. if you transfer your assets within 5 years of needing assistance, Medicaid can “look back” at the assets you transferred and determine your eligibility based on their value.
If you anticipate needing elder care services and do not want the high cost of such care to completely burn through your estate, you may want to consider placing your assets in an irrevocable trust. This type of trust transfers your assets to a trusted individual who will be obligated as trustee to manage your assets in your best interest. If assets are placed in this trust 5 years before you require Medicaid assistance, they will not count towards your asset limit.
When you trust the experienced attorneys at East Harbor Law Group to prepare your estate, we will do everything possible to keep your estate from being exhausted by medical expenses. call us today for a free consultation.
Documents We Prepare When Planning Your Estate
Transfers your assets into a trust that you may cancel at any time. Great for performing the same function as a will while avoiding probate and allowing you to retain control of your assets.
Transfers your assets into a trust managed by another individual for your benefit. While this type of trust cannot be changed at any time, it will protect your assets from being counted against you when attempting to qualify for Medicaid Assistance.
To avoid probate, we plan to pass as much of your estate as possible through a trust. However, there is always a chance you may acquire any new assets after creating your trust. Without a plan for these assets, the court would demand that they pass according to the laws of intestacy. A pour-over will steps in to create a safety net for any property not included in your original trust. By catching any assets that “pour over” from your trust, this document ensures that all your assets pass according to your wishes.
This document allows you to designate a trusted person as your agent to make medical, legal, and financial decisions on your behalf. Unlike a traditional power of attorney, a durable power of attorney allows the authority of the agent to continue even if you become incapacitated due to illness or injury.
Allows you to appoint a trusted person to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated and unable to communicate your wishes.
Allows you to permit healthcare providers to share your protected medical information with trusted third parties.
As of 2024, New York recognizes the validity of transfer-on-death deeds. This document allows you to instantly transfer real property to another individual upon your death without creating a living trust.
In order to pass your real property through a trust, the trust must be “funded.” This means that the property must be transferred from you into the name of your living trust. This is done by recording a deed with the county clerk naming your living trust as the owner of your property. Without this crucial step, the trust you create will have no authority to pass your real property to your designated beneficiaries.
Why Not Just Make My Own Will Online?
Simply put, a will is not a comprehensive estate plan. While having a will is certainly preferable to having no plan for your assets, it will not help you avoid probate, estate tax, or Medicaid costs, and it will not help you manage your affairs while you are still alive.
What you need to know is that when you create your own will, you incur a significant risk, even if you use a will preparation service such as LegalZoom. If your “do it yourself” will fails, these websites will often rely on “self-help” disclaimers to place the blame on you for using their service incorrectly. By using such services, you also often agree to binding arbitration with damages capped at however much you paid to use their service. Imagine an asset as important as your family home failing to pass on as you intended, only for your family to recover nothing but the 99 dollars you paid to use a document template 10 years prior.
When you work with an experienced attorney to plan your estate, you can rest assured that your legacy will pass exactly as you intended. Our firm will consult with you to create an individualized estate plan that meets all your individual needs.