Skilled Estate Planning Attorneys in New York
Estate Planning, Trusts, Wills and Estate Administration
It’s never too soon to begin estate planning. Planning for your future can help avoid future heartbreak. It's impossible to predict what the future might bring, but by being prepared with solid estate planning and planned trusts and administration you can protect your family and your loved ones for many contingencies.
At Riebling, Proto & Sachs, LLP, our attorneys help people in New York plan for the future by preparing thorough and detailed estate planning documents. We will create carefully crafted wills, trusts, heath care documents and financial documents to ensure that your wishes are clear. Our estate planning attorneys are always available in our convenient offices in New Windsor, Bronx, Brewster and White Plains law offices. Please contact our law firm today to discuss your estate planning concerns. Our lawyers represent clients in Westchester, Bronx, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland and Orange Counties as well as throughout New York State.
Handling a Wide Range of Effective Estate Planning Matters
With effective estate planning for estate distribution, you can save a great deal of money, avoid confusion and prevent family disputes. With efficient estate planning documents for your later years of life, you can make your wishes clear in advance; you can ensure that your health care wishes are followed and that your finances are managed by someone you trust.
Our estate planning attorneys handle all types of estate planning concerns and administration including:
- Living trusts
- Charitable trusts
- Testamentary trusts
- Revocable living trusts
- Simple wills
- Complex wills
- Living wills
- Durable powers of attorney
- Health care directives
- Guardianship matters
With careful estate planning and estate administration, we can also help you prepare for long-term health care concerns, and protect your assets with Medicaid planning. Our skilled estate planning attorneys are well versed in all of New York estate and probate laws, and can help you determine which route will best serve the needs of both you and your loved ones.
Wills & Trusts in New York State
There are several acceptable bases to challenge the validity of wills or trusts. In order to invalidate a will or trust in New York, you must establish one of the following grounds:
- That the decedent was not competent at the time the will was drafted. Perhaps due to a mental illness or was in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
- That the decedent was unduly influenced by someone who would benefit from the will or trust.
- That the will or trust was improperly written and is therefore not valid and enforceable.
- That the will or trust was improperly executed and is therefore not valid or enforceable. An improperly executed will is a will that was not signed and witnessed.
- That the will is a forgery.
Contact our law office to speak with one of our trust and estate litigation attorneys regarding your concerns about the validity of a trust, or to contest a will.
Estate Planning Goals
Estate planning allows you to accomplish a number of important goals:
- A properly drafted will or trust can ensure that the appropriate people inherit your assets, as you intend.
- A variety of irrevocable trusts can be used to minimize your tax bill now, and your loved one's tax bill when they inherit your estate.
- A living trust allows you to maintain control of your assets during your lifetime while avoiding probate after your death.
- A living will (or health care directive) can ensure your loved ones know your wishes in cases of medical emergency or at the end of life, while a health care proxy can allow someone to make health care decisions when you are unable to.
A durable power of attorney can allow someone to handle your finances in the event you become unable to. It can support your goals in giving to charity as well as gifting to children and grandchildren through gift tax planning.
The New York estate planning attorneys at Riebling, Proto & Sachs, LLP are also estate litigators, bringing and defending claims against wills, trusts, and fiduciary's in New York Surrogate's Court.
New York Estate Administration
The estate administration team at Riebling, Proto & Sachs, LLP, assists clients in the administration of an estate from the time of death until final accounting and settlement.
The second major task is to gather, inventory, and value the assets of the estate, including real estate, personal effects, insurance, bank accounts, stocks and bonds and other investments. Unless they are jointly owned or have a named beneficiary, these assets make up the probate estate, and it is from these assets that the debts of the person who has died and administration expenses of the estate must be paid.
An executor or administrator must evaluate all claims made against the estate and pay legitimate debts. If there is a question about the validity of a claim, it may end up in a claims proceeding in estate litigation in Surrogate's Court.
Depending on the size of the estate, the assets and liabilities may need to be reported on a Federal estate tax return and a New York estate tax return. Other required paperwork can include a fiduciary final accounting of the distribution of an estate.
There also will be decisions about management of an estate that will need to be made after the fact, including timing of distributions, tax elections, and allocation of tax exemptions.
Contact our law firm today to schedule your free consultation with a skilled estate planning attorney with flexible appointment times at our New Windsor, Bronx, Brewster and White Plains, NY offices.
Our estate planning attorneys at Riebling, Proto & Sachs, LLP are highly knowledgeable regarding all aspects of estate planning, wills, trusts and the administration of final estates and can provide you with ease of mind for your loved ones future.
