Who do you trust enough to hand over control of your family's future? That is the real question behind every trust I help clients create, and it is often harder to answer than deciding how the assets themselves should be divided. A trust is only as good as the person managing it, and I have […]

Who has the legal right to step in and manage a loved one's affairs after they pass away? It is a question I hear constantly, usually from a spouse, child, or sibling who assumed that simply being "next of kin" was enough. In New York, it is not. The Surrogate's Court must formally appoint someone […]

Not everything a person owns at death has to go through Surrogate's Court. Many families are surprised to learn that a significant portion of their loved one's estate may already have a built-in path to the right people, no judge required. Understanding which assets skip probate entirely, and why, can save an executor months of […]

Picture this: your uncle passed away without a will, and every relative agrees on who his closest family members are. There's no dispute, no fighting over money — just a shared understanding of who belongs on the family tree. Yet the Surrogate's Court still won't move the case forward until someone puts that family tree […]

Most of my clients are surprised to learn that New York taxes estates far more aggressively than the federal government does. While the federal estate tax exemption sits at $15 million per person in 2026, New York's exemption is only $7,350,000. Worse, New York has what practitioners call "the cliff." If an estate exceeds that […]

Many of my clients assume that giving money or property away before they die is the easiest way to shrink a taxable estate and keep assets out of Surrogate's Court entirely. In New York, that assumption can backfire, and I have seen families receive unwelcome news from their accountant only after the fact. The Three-Year […]

Most people assume a life insurance payout skips the estate entirely because the money goes straight to a named beneficiary. I have had to correct this assumption more times than I can count. If you own the policy at the time of your death, the full death benefit is added to your taxable estate, even […]

I often receive phone calls from parents who want to leave money to a child, but who are worried about what will happen to it once it lands in that child's hands. Maybe there is a lawsuit hanging over them, an old debt to a credit card company, or a business that never quite got […]

Most executors assume that once the final asset lands in a beneficiary's account, their job is done. That assumption is wrong, and I have seen it cost former executors years of stress and, in some cases, their own money. New York law does not automatically release an executor from responsibility the moment an estate is […]

What if your family never had to set foot in Surrogate's Court after you're gone? That question surprises most people, because they assume probate is simply an unavoidable part of dying with assets in your name. It isn't. I have guided countless New York families through the difference between an estate that sails through settlement […]