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 […]

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 […]

A safe deposit box is inaccessible to the deceased's family members. The bank won't grant access even when it contains the original will of the testator. This is a practical problem families face in New York every year. Having just a death certificate and the box key are insufficient for bank access. If you are […]

Did you know that New York State is currently sitting on billions of dollars in unclaimed property — forgotten bank accounts, uncashed checks, old insurance payouts, security deposits, and stock dividends that were never delivered because the company simply lost track of the person? A surprising number of the estates I administer turn out to […]

Many people assume a car simply passes to whoever is holding the keys once its owner has died. I have had to correct that assumption more than once, usually after a family member has already tried, and failed, to register a deceased parent's car in their own name at the DMV. New York does not […]

By Roman Aminov, When a parent or spouse dies and the family home still carries a mortgage, the grief rarely arrives alone. Right behind it comes a cascade of paperwork, a lender that wants its money, and a probate process that moves at the pace of the Surrogate's Court. I have walked Queens and Long […]

By Roman Aminov, When a loved one passes away in Queens, the legal process that follows can be confusing. Bank accounts freeze, property sits in limbo, and bills keep arriving whether or not anyone has the legal authority to pay them. That process, whether it takes the form of probate or estate administration, runs through […]

By Roman Aminov, If you have recently been appointed executor or administrator in another state or country and discovered that the decedent owned property in New York, you are likely facing a question nobody prepared you for. How do you get legal authority over assets in a state where you were never appointed? The answer […]

By Roman Aminov, For most families, a child's 18th birthday is a celebration. For parents of a son or daughter with an intellectual or developmental disability, it often arrives with a jolt of legal reality. The day your child becomes a legal adult is the day your parental authority effectively disappears, even if nothing about […]