By Roman Aminov, Esq. — Law Offices of Roman Aminov Most people who ask me about estate tax have heard a number somewhere in the region of fifteen million dollars, and they conclude the subject has nothing to do with them. The number they heard is the federal one. New York has its own, it […]

An estate plan reflects the family you had, the property you owned, and the law that applied on the day you signed it. None of those three things stay fixed. I regularly meet with clients who signed a will ten or fifteen years ago and understood the matter to be permanently settled, and in many […]

Marriage carries a long list of automatic legal protections in New York, and most married couples never have to think about a single one of them. When a couple lives together for years without marrying, sharing a home, raising children and paying one another's bills, none of those protections attach. The law looks at the […]

Much of what a person owns in New York passes outside the will. Life insurance proceeds, IRAs, 401(k) accounts, payable-on-death bank accounts, and transfer-on-death brokerage accounts all move by contract, to whoever is named on the form the company has on file. Those forms are short, usually signed quickly at an account opening, and most […]

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself who would raise your children if you and the other parent couldn’t? It's a question most parents push to the back of their minds, buried beneath school pickups, pediatrician appointments, and the daily rhythm of family life. Yet it is one of the most consequential questions a parent […]

A blended family brings together a spouse, biological children, stepchildren, and sometimes obligations from a prior marriage that are still in force. Each of those people may hold a different understanding of what is supposed to happen after you are gone. New York law does not account for those understandings. It applies a fixed set […]

Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and payable-on-death bank accounts pass to whoever is named on the form held by the financial institution. That transfer happens on its own, outside the will, and the will has no authority to redirect it. Families usually learn this in the weeks after a death, when they discover that the […]

In my practice, I regularly work with families who added a child's name to a bank account, expecting it to take care of their estate planning needs. A joint account is a useful tool for managing day-to-day banking, but it is not a substitute for a will, a power of attorney, or a trust, and […]

Many clients sit across from my desk here in Queens, breathe a sigh of relief after signing their Revocable Living Trust, and ask a very logical question: "If I have a trust to avoid probate, do I still need a Last Will and Testament?" It is easy to assume that once a trust is established […]

Do you own a primary home in Queens and a second property somewhere else—perhaps a winter condo in Florida, a lake house upstate, or a cabin in the Poconos? If so, your estate plan needs to carefully account for both. Most property owners assume that a single Last Will and Testament will seamlessly transfer all […]