A plan your family can actually use
Documents that work together and hold up when they are needed, not a stack of forms that leaves your family guessing.
📞(518) 313-3090Call or text, I answer my own phoneThe documents, and what each one does
Most families need the same core set. What varies is how they are drafted and how they fit together with the assets you actually own.
Last Will and Testament
Directs who receives what, names the executor who will carry it out, and appoints guardians for minor children. Without one, New York decides through its intestacy statute, and that answer is often not the one you would have chosen.
Revocable living trust
Holds assets during your lifetime and passes them without probate. Useful when you own property in more than one state, want privacy, or want to control the timing of distributions to beneficiaries.
Irrevocable trusts
Including Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, used to protect assets from the cost of long term care and, in some cases, for tax planning. These require careful drafting and advance timing. More on Medicaid planning →
Durable Power of Attorney
Allows someone you trust to handle financial matters if you cannot. New York's statutory form has specific execution requirements, and a defective one gets rejected by banks at the worst possible moment.
Health Care Proxy and Living Will
Names the person who makes medical decisions for you and records your wishes about end of life care, so your family is not left to guess or argue.
Deeds and beneficiary designations
Real property transfers and retirement account beneficiary designations are part of the plan, not an afterthought. A will cannot override a beneficiary form, and plenty of carefully drafted plans fail on exactly that point.
Legal and financial, in the same conversation
I am an attorney and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. That matters here more than it sounds like it should.
A great deal of family wealth now sits in retirement accounts, which pass by beneficiary designation and are taxed to whoever inherits them. A plan that ignores how those accounts are titled and who is named on them can produce results nobody intended: a tax bill that could have been avoided, or an inheritance that goes to a former spouse because a form was never updated.
What it costs
Estate planning is handled on a flat fee, quoted at the end of your first consultation once the scope is clear. Fees depend on whether the plan calls for a plan built around a will or around a trust and how many documents are involved.
The consultation is where the number comes from. Bring a rough sense of what you own and how it is titled (house, retirement accounts, life insurance, business interests) and you will leave with a recommendation and a fixed price.
Questions people ask
When does a trust make sense?
More often than people expect. A trust keeps your estate out of probate entirely, which means your family is not waiting on the Surrogate’s Court for months to get access to what you left them. It keeps the terms private, where a probated will becomes a public record anyone can read. It lets you control the timing of distributions rather than handing a young beneficiary everything at once. And it is the structure that does the work in Medicaid and long term care planning.
It matters more if you own real property in more than one state, if you have a blended family, if a beneficiary has creditors or a shaky marriage, or if protecting the house from the cost of care is on your mind at all.
A will alone leaves all of that to the court and to statute. Whether a trust is right for you is a question worth answering with your actual assets in front of you, which is what the consultation is for.
What happens if I do nothing?
New York's intestacy statute decides who inherits, which may not match your intentions, especially in blended families. The Surrogate's Court appoints an administrator rather than the person you would have chosen. Without a power of attorney or health care proxy, your family may need a guardianship proceeding to make decisions on your behalf, which is slow, public and expensive.
How often should a plan be reviewed?
Every three to five years, and immediately after a marriage, divorce, death, birth, a significant change in assets, or a move to another state. Beneficiary designations deserve a look every time you change jobs.
Can we do this without coming into the office?
Most of the process, including the consultation, drafting and review, can be handled by phone, video and email. New York has specific requirements for how wills are signed and witnessed, so the execution itself is arranged carefully. We will cover that when the drafts are ready.
Get your affairs in order
Call, or send a few details and I will be in touch within two business days.
📞(518) 313-3090Call or text, I answer my own phone