Having an estate plan in place can be an enormous relief. Knowing what will happen and when it will occur can bring peace of mind that you never imagined possible. One of the major issues with an estate plan are the tax consequences. You can pass on your assets and...
Many people create charitable trusts as part of their estate planning portfolios. Generally, a charitable trust is an allocation of assets that provides funding for certain types of charitable causes. For example, a person with a lifetime interest in classical music...
Sometimes, people get so caught up in devising ways to distribute their property and assets after death that they fail to spend sufficient time deciding who should be in charge of those tasks. Arguably, the persons or institutions you name as the executor of your...
Changing your will is not that difficult, but it needs to be done right in order to avoid problems later on down the road. Most importantly, during the drafting a new will, the old will must be revoked. Revoking an old will is achieved by including a special statement...
In the past, same-sex couples had to do much of their estate planning individually, seeing as how they could not get married. However, when the Defense of Marriage Act was overturned, same-sex marriages became legal in many states, and this changed the rights that...
Do you have an estate that is worth more than the cap for the amount of gift and estate tax exemption? If you have an estate of any size, a private annuity may be the way to go to avoid taxes that your heirs will have to pay. A private annuity transfers property to...
New York allows people to designate how their property and assets should be distributed after they die. Typically, this is accomplished through the formation of a legally valid will as part of a larger estate planning effort. For example, the person who creates the...
The baby boomer generation is not getting any younger and more and more individuals in this age category are entering into retirement. However, a lot of them are doing so without any kind of long term care plan finalized. This is because some people think it is too...
Many New York residents wrongly believe that they should wait until they are elderly before considering long-term care planning. If you share that opinion, then you may be woefully unprepared if you should encounter some kind of life-changing event. Imagine a car...
A U.S. District Court recently made a very big ruling that could impact future cases, but some background is needed to see how things got to this point. The case involves a living trust and a bankruptcy filing. It all began back in 1997, when a woman decided to set up...
