When you welcome your first child, your life forever changes. For the first few months, you are busy caring for a newborn—figuring out how to soothe your child, feed them and survive some sleepless nights. While many parents do lots of research on the best car seat,...
What’s holding Americans back from forming an estate plan?
Americans are confused. They’re confused about estate planning and rightfully so, it’s a diverse topic. Should you create a will, a trust or both? It depends because they serve different purposes, but both can be beneficial to form a complete estate plan....Why small business owners need an estate plan
Creating an estate plan is an important responsibility that can help you ensure that your family is taken care of in the event of your death. If you’re a small business owner, this responsibility is even more important, as both your business and your family could face...A family meeting can prevent some disputes over your estate plan
You may feel uncomfortable bringing up your estate plan with family, and some family members may even try to change the topic when you do so. However, many benefits can come from talking with your loved ones about your estate plan.Communicating at least the basics...When is it important for me to update my estate plan?
For many New Yorkers, the creation of an estate plan is viewed as final with no changes necessary. Some might have taken a significant amount of time before finally crafting an estate plan to prepare for the future, but when they did they were fully prepared to leave...Can you revoke a will?
A well-drafted estate plan should represent your wishes at the time you and your lawyer executed it. However, life can throw a lot of changes at you, and you may find that after a few years your plan no longer reflects your wishes. With wills and other estate planning...An estate plan for artwork and other collectibles can be complex
New York State can be a hotbed for the art scene with many people collecting valuable items. Collectibles are not limited to artwork, however. Anything can rise in value based on its popularity and historic significance. That includes sports collectibles, coins,...Goals of estate planning include avoiding family disputes
The main goal for many people when crafting an estate plan in New York is to cover all the bases and ensure the assets and properties go where the testator wants. This can mean many things and the strategies to achieve the desired ends are critical to the process....Single New Yorkers need a well-crafted estate plan too
For single residents of New York, drafting estate planning documents might not be high on their list of priorities. While they might feel justified in avoiding the subject of the inevitability of the end of life and what will happen to their possessions, it is still a...Changes in life require changes to an estate plan
New York residents who believe they have fulfilled the need to have an estate plan and simply leave the document as is without changing it are often making a mistake. With the inevitable changes in life, there are times that an estate plan is no longer as current and...
