James Yastion, Esq., a New Paltz trusts and estates lawyer with over 16 years of experience in the field, will delve into the pros and cons of trusts versus wills, Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts for Medicaid and nursing home planning, Revocable Living Trusts to avoid probate, and family trusts to protect your children’s or grandchildren’s […]
Are you thinking of filing a legal suit challenging the validity of a will or trust? Have you been appointed under the will or trust as a fiduciary and are seeking to defend the will? In either case you need competent, experienced legal counsel to assist you in addressing the various complex issues that may […]
Probate is the process that is required to have the local Surrogate’s Court “approve” the Will. It is a minimum of a 9-month process during which the Will must be presented to the Court. During this process, all legal heirs must be given notice of the Will being presented to the Court and are given […]
If you have retirement assets, it is important to have a carefully considered plan in place for the disposition of those assets at death, which may involve changes to the beneficiary designation and/or directing those assets into a trust. Beware though, since ensuring the transfer goes smoothly requires careful planning. Now more than ever before, […]
Choosing an estate planning attorney could be considered as important a decision as where to live, where to go to school, and who to marry, so it is a decision that should be made deliberately with the best information at hand. To this end, the following are 5 useful tips on what to look for in selecting an […]
There is a myth out there, propagated by some, that “Wills are obsolete.” The revocable trust (also called a living trust), these people will say, is the only estate planning solution. I think I speak for most New York practitioners in saying that not only is this not true, but it is misleading potentially to […]
The top 10 things you need to know when buying real estate, straight from a Real Estate Attorney. Don’t buy if you can’t stay put. If you can’t commit to remaining in your home for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of […]
A lot of estate planning clients I meet with have enough of a working knowledge of estate planning to know that they want to “avoid probate.” They’ve also heard that joint bank accounts can accomplish this goal. They are correct in theory, but the devil is in the details. There are several major pitfalls that […]
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ____ (2013) (Docket No. 12-307) has far reaching impacts on estate planning for same-sex couples in the United States. As a result, now more than ever, there is a need for careful estate planning for same-sex married couples. In United States v. Windsor, […]