Estate planning can be a very difficult topic for New York parents to approach. People do not exactly enjoy making plans for after they have died so it can be an easy discussion to put off. But while it is true that many people feel uncomfortable discussing what will...
This is a question we hear all the time. And the short answer is, yes, you really do need a Health Care Proxy, along with all of the other documents that go together to put your estate planning "house" in order.A Health Care Proxy is a document in which you name...
I try to write as clearly and simply as possible. However, there are certain obscure words and phrases, imbedded in the English language and the legal documents we use every day, that I can't eliminate. Chattels is the word I get the most client questions about. The...
The Spring 2011 edition of "Worthwise for Women," put out by Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, focuses on estate planning for women. Here's a preview: ...The word "estate" often conjures up images of vast wealth well beyond our own means. But that line of thinking...
A recent IRS private letter ruling dealt with payments to a private school on behalf of two children diagnosed with learning disabilities. The children were attending the private school in order to participate in a special education program designed to help the...
With so many of our older clients suffering from the dementia and the early stages of Alzheimer's, as well as younger clients who may have developmental difficulties, estate practitioners are sometimes at a loss to determine whether a client has the capacity to...
One of the questions clients and colleagues have asked most frequently this year is what is going on with the estate tax? Well, New York's estate tax isn't going anywhere. The first $1 million of assets is exempt, as is anything passing to a surviving spouse (with a...
Thanks to all for some great comments. Over the weekend, I saw a commercial on TV for a legal document drafting website and software, that was endorsed by a well-known attorney, but one who is not licensed in New York (according to the attorney directory at...
Here is the outline of a current case that all you practitioners can use as a horror story to scare your clients into completing their estate plan (or your colleagues; we all know how few attorneys actually have a current estate or business succession plan in place)....
