New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

Issues to Consider before Creating a Living Will

Published on: October 10, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Creating a living will is one of the areas of the estate planning that many people overlook. These documents, which are also sometimes referred to as advance health care directives, describe what types of life-prolonging measure an individual would like if they are placed on life support.

Among other reasons why these documents are overlooked is that making decisions about these issues can be emotionally difficult for people. If you have decided to finally take the valuable step of creating a living will, it is a wise idea to ask yourself some critical questions.

The Worth of Creating a Living Wills

Estate Planning and Alzheimer’s

Published on: October 8, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, you and your loved one will end up facing a number of serious challenges.

For one, there are a number of difficult emotions including fear and uncertainty about what the future holds. Second, there are a number of complex issues involving estate planning.

As a result, this article reviews some important estate planning tips that you should remember following an Alzheimer’s diagnosis of a loved one.

Safeguarding Estate Planning Documents

Published on: October 8, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Clients call this law firm asking for a copy of their will or other estate planning documents because they cannot locate the original all of the time. Our first response is to tell them that if they cannot find the original document, then they do not really have a will. In New York, only a document bearing the original signature of the testator and witnesses can be submitted to probate. While a photocopy or electronic copy of the document may exist, it is not the original and will be rejected by the Surrogate’s Court when seeking to have an estate probated. It is not until the loved person becomes admitted at the hospital under an emergency or that person passes that those left behind start the search for estate planning documents. Another overlooked catastrophic event is damage or loss of estate planning documents after a natural disaster.

Domestic weather events, including nor’easters, tropical storms, and hurricanes often bring a great deal of water to the shorelines and shore communities of New York State. Emergency plans should include provisions for the preservation of estate planning documents. When people are asked or ordered to evacuate their homes, because of emergency weather conditions, they often only leave with the clothes on their backs and their loved ones. Not all temporary shelters for example, allow people to bring their pets with them and many times the pets stay behind. The last thing on peoples’ mind, when evacuating their homes, is collecting and preserving estate planning documents.

What are estate planning documents?

4 Retirement Mistakes You Should Avoid

Published on: October 5, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The retirement process is full of challenges. One of the best ways to make sure that you navigate this process successfully is to anticipate the various obstacles that lie ahead of you. The implementation of strategies to avoid or limit the severity of obstacles that do arise should be included in a retirement plan.

The purpose of this article is to review some of the most common mistakes that you should anticipate as you consider and begin the creation of a retirement plan.

# 1 – Failure to Create a Strategy at All

Do You and Your Partner Have Identical Wishes Regarding Your Assets?

Published on: October 4, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Some couples approach their estate planning lawyer seeking advice on creating a joint will. Generally, the estates lawyer will frown upon such a suggestion because in practice, joint wills are fraught with problems. A joint will can be created by a married couple and is a single will. A joint will is signed by the couple and in it contain provisions leaving all of their assets to each other. The reason why joint wills are not more commonly used as an instrument to bequeath gifts upon death is that usually, even in longtime marriages, most married couples do not have identical wishes regarding their assets.

Joint tenancy vs. tenancy in common

Married couples generally own real estate assets as joint tenants. A lesser form of home ownership is a tenancy in common. The key difference between the two is their effect on the distribution of assets at the death of one of the partners. Joint tenancies contain a right to survivorship. This means that at a partner’s death, their share of any joint assets become the sole property of the surviving partner by operation of law and outside any asset distribution of a will for example. In a will, assets held as a tenancy in common are distributed according to the terms of each person’s will. Tenancy in common may be a better ownership form where couples wish to gift or bequeath their assets or shares in an asset in different ways. This may be an attractive form of ownership for couples with children from a prior marriage particularly if the new spouse has no children of his or her own.

Estate Planning after the Death of a Spouse

Published on: October 3, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There are few things as painful in life as the death of a spouse. In addition to weathering the devastating emotions like loneliness and sadness that accompany this process, it is still important to plan for your future as a widow or widower.

Unfortunately in some situations, the surviving spouse might have even been left out of financial and estate planning decisions that were made before death.

This article reviews some of the important strategies that you should remember when it comes to estate planning and the death of a spouse.

A Quick Guide to the SECURE Act

Published on: October 1, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

When it comes to preparation for retirement, an overwhelming number of American do not feel secure in their assets. Approximately only one in five Americans believe they have enough for retirement. This means that almost 50% of Americans have little or no confidence in their retirement savings.

The Role of the SECURE Act

The House of Representatives passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE) in May, 2019. The purpose of this act was to increase retirement savings. The Act then stalled in the Senate, which makes the future of this body of legislation uncertain.

Advice on Estate Planning for Children

Published on: September 27, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There are many parents who have questioned how to create the best possible estate plan for their children. Some parents even make mistakes about how beneficiaries are able to access assets. As a result, this article reviews some important advice that should be followed by parents with young children.

# 1 – Create a Living Document

While it might not seem like it would directly help your children, one of the best steps to take is to make sure that your own living documents are written.

What are Long-Term Care Hospitals?

Published on: September 26, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Despite the prevalence of aggressive, life-prolonging medical procedures, such as feeding tubes, ventilators, and dialysis, once a patient enters a long-term care hospital, L.T.C.H. for short, more than one-third of them will never return home. According to the New York Times, the median survival for such patients is 8.3 months. Much of the time will be spent in a combination of hospitals, skilled nursing home, and specialized rehab facilities.

The high and low spots

Patients in their 60s with musculoskeletal diagnoses, like complications from a hip fracture or joint replacement, do better in L.T.C.H. institutions then people over 80. A high number of patients that are transferred to L.T.C.H facilities from hospitals have undergone a medical procedure called a tracheostomy. Also called a stoma, a tracheostomy is a surgical opening in the windpipe to accommodate a breathing tube that is attached to a ventilator. This procedure is commonly performed on patients who suffer from chronic and severe lung disease and neck cancers among other neck and voice box disorders.

What Happens to Digital Currency following Death

Published on: September 23, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The amount of attention as well as the volume of digital currencies like Bitcoin is at an all time high.

Digital currency is just one of several trends away from traditional assets and towards digital elements. While digital currency has made business in some senses much easier, digital currency also present some challenges.

For one, when the owners of digital currency die or become incapacitated, digital currencies can make the transfer of assets much more complex. This is because traditional estate planning documents were not designed to address the numerous challenges that can arise with digital currency.