While the main purpose of an estate plan is to distribute assets to your loved ones after you are gone, it can also serve an important purpose while you are alive – planning for your potential incapacity. An estate plan can provide instructions for the management of your assets, payment…
According to the Boston College Center of Wealth and Philanthropy, the Baby Boomer generation stands to inherit over $27 trillion in the United States alone over the next four decades. A large portion of that wealth is invested into your parent’s home, but when you inherit the house it can…
Many people, business owners and everyone else, are concerned about the federal estate tax when creating their estate plans. Although the federal estate tax is 40%, it does not apply unless the decedent has an estate worth over $5.34 million, and the estate amount is doubled if the person is…
An attorney is developing an online game aimed at teaching its players about estate planning. Stephanie Kimbro has created a demo for the game, “Estate Quest,” where the player is a detective who is given various cases about people who did not plan their estates correctly. The player is taken…
For many New Yorkers, the term ‘trust‘ continues to invoke visions of the super wealthy. Similarly, terms like “trust fund baby” are used to refer to spoiled, rich individuals who do no work on their own and simply live off their parents savings. The connotation is always negative. As our…
Estate planning can have ramifications decades (or even centuries!) after an individual passes away. On one hand, this is true because how one leaves assets and guidance to others can influence their long-term personal legacy. More specifically, however, planning can dictate legal matters far into the future. Whoever is in…
Of the many estate planning lessons pulled for the tragic death of Philip Seymour Hoffman in New York last month is the need to properly update your documents. Hoffman’s will was drafted nearly ten years earlier. It had not been changed to reflect his new life circumstances, particularly the birth…
Some New Yorkers eschew an estate plan because they assume their wishes are very simple. “I just want the kids to split it” is a common refrain. For one thing, default rules in the state do not automatically mean that children will split a parents’ assets. The only way to…
Making preparations for funeral services, burial preferences, and other memorial issues is a natural part of New York estate plans. These details have been a staple of the mourning and remembrance process for centuries. However, if trends continue, a new form of memory may be added to many plans: professional,…
One of the more unique estate planning issues arising in recent years relates to “posthumous births.” This refers to a child who is born after one of their parents has already died. This was always a possibility, as a parent could pass away in the months after a child was…