Estate Administration & Probate

Estate administration can take months or even more than a year. The more property and debts someone had and the more complicated their financial circumstances were, the longer it can take to settle everything after they die. Spending a lot of your time and mental...

As an executor, your primary obligation is to resolve all of the outstanding obligations of someone who has recently died. You may need to probate their property, have utility accounts moved into the estate's name and pay taxes on behalf of the deceased. If they have...

Real estate holdings can be worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, but they can also cause a lot of complications during estate administration. Siblings might fight over who gets to stay in the house or might suddenly realize that they can't qualify...

Besides taking care of your family's financial security and keeping control over your future medical care, your estate plan can also help you support causes you believe in as part of your legacy. In New York, charitable planning tools, including a charitable trust,...

When you’re alert, healthy and able to make your own decisions, you won’t have many concerns about your ability to manage your own finances. Conversely, if you’re incapacitated for any reason, such as an injury or illness, you won’t be able to do this. And that’s why...

When it comes to estate planning, there’s no questioning the fact that you want to make accurate and sound decisions that will benefit you and your family in the future. The problem with this is that there is nothing easy about the estate planning process. Here are...

If you will be the executor of an estate or if you are one of the beneficiaries who is waiting for the distribution of assets from the estate, you might wonder whether the estate needs to pass through the probate court in New York as part of the estate administration...

The first time you consider creating an estate plan it’s easy to lose track of your goals. Instead, you focus on one thing and one thing only: Putting the process in the past as quickly as possible. If you’re taking the time to create an estate plan, you might as well...

Despite someone taking the time and making the effort to create an estate plan or a last will, the legacy they plan may wind up undermined by challenges brought through probate court, often by family members, heirs or beneficiaries. Some people challenge estate plans...

A trust is a wonderful way to handle your assets when you’re no longer around to do it yourself. But they’re only one piece of a larger puzzle, and you’d benefit from confiding in an old estate planning standard. Only 44% of Americans have a will that will handle...