As an estate planning and probate attorney, I am often involved in the sale of real estate that my clients inherited and have to deal with a very important question: “will my client have to pay capital gains tax on the sale”? As a brief introduction, capital gains tax is the government’s way of taxing […]

If you have been named as the executor of a decedent’s last will, you don’t have authority to sell or distribute their assets until you have been appointed by the Surrogate’s court. That process, called probate, can take many months, especially if someone is contesting the will. The appointment of an executor is formally made […]

Being an executor or administrator of an estate come with many responsibilities. Collecting and insuring the estate’s assets, paying valid debts and expenses, filing income taxes, and list goes on. That’s why most clients look forward to the final step in the estate process with great anticipation. That final step, known as the accounting, is […]

People (usually those who have been disinherited) often wonder if they have any rights to contest a last will and testament of a loved one which they believe to be an invalid will. There may be many reasons why they believe the will to be a sham; a forgery, duress, lack of mental capacity, undue […]

In order to probate a will, i.e. to have it accepted by the Court as the decedent’s Last Will and Testament, New York States Surrogate’s Courts require the original Will to be turned over to the Court. What happens, however, if the original Will is lost or destroyed? Can a copy of the Will take […]

As an Estate Lawyer, I often get phone calls from clients who have successfully obtained letters of administration for the estate of a loved one, but can’t sell the real property or even transfer it to themselves. The reason is that when a decedent dies owning real estate, the Kings County Surrogate’s Court in Brooklyn […]

Nobody wants to call a probate lawyer. People only call us when they are dealing with the loss of a family member and need help through the process. Over the years, I have been privileged to speak with hundreds of clients and helped address their questions about the probate process in general and my services […]

I received a frantic call earlier this year from a woman with two young children whose husband passed away a few months prior without leaving a will. Although she had been appointed administrator of his estate, she quickly realized that all of her husband’s assets had been left to his brother through a beneficiary designation […]

I often receive phone calls from clients who had recently lost a loved one and, among other things, are confused about how to access the decedent’s safe deposit box. A common concern is that the loved one kept their last will in the box, which needs to be probated. In fact, before the Surrogate’s Court […]

As a probate lawyer, I am often asked many important questions about the probate process. I have decided to make a list of some of the most frequent questions in an effort to help people understand the process better. What is Probate? Probate is the process of presenting a last will and testament to the […]