Long Island Elder Law & Estate Planning

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The Equal Gifting Dilemma

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The distribution of your estate assets after your death is undoubtedly an integral part of your estate plan. If you have adult children, you may be facing a common dilemma when it comes to dividing your estate. There is often pressure to split your estate evenly among your children; however, you may have valid reasons to resist that pressure. A Long Island estate planning attorney at Eghrari Law Firm discusses the equal gifting dilemma and offers some suggestions for how to resolve …

Estate Planning Mistakes You Can Avoid Making

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Estate planning mistakes can often confuse people when they don't know which path should be taken. Your estate plan will likely be among the most important projects you undertake over the course of your lifetime. Ideally, your estate plan should protect and provide for you, your assets, and your loved ones, both while you are alive and after you are gone. Avoiding mistakes during the creation of your estate plan, therefore, is crucial. The best way to do that is to work closely with an …

Four Key Facts About Probate

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Probate is a legal process that can enter the picture when assets are being transferred after someone passes away. When a will is used to facilitate asset transfers, the executor that is named in the document would admit the will to probate, and the Surrogate’s Court would supervise the administration of the estate. This court will also preside when someone passes away without a will or a trust. You should certainly understand some things about the process when you are making your estate …

Attend to These Estate Plan Details

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Some people have an overly simplistic view of the estate planning process. They think it boils down to the creation of a will, but in reality, there are other things to take into consideration. Choose Your Administrator Carefully If you do in fact use a will to state your final wishes, you would name an executor in the document to act as the administrator. You should be very discerning when you are choosing the executor, because it is not just a ceremonial title that you bestow upon someone …

Multiple Wills Can Be Included in Your Estate Plan

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Many people are not aware of the fact that there are a number of wills that can be used in the field of estate planning. When you have an understanding of all the tools that are available, you can make fully informed choices. With this in mind, we will look at four different wills in this post. Simple Will The one will that everyone has heard of before is the simple will. This type of will is used to state your wishes with regard to the way you want your assets to be distributed after you are …

Did You Check These Three Estate Plan Boxes?

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There is more to the process of estate planning than the creation of a simple will. In fact, a trust can be a better choice as the centerpiece of your estate plan, but that’s a subject that we will tackle at another time. Even if you do use a will, there are some finer details that many people overlook, and we will look at three of them in this post. Letter of Last Instructions The executor acts as an administrator when a will is used as an asset transfer vehicle. This individual will …

Is It Better to Have a Will or a Trust?

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There are many tools in the state planning toolkit. Personalized attention is key, because there is no one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter estate plan. Every situation is unique, so your estate plan should be custom crafted to suit your needs. For some folks with very limited resources, a simple last will can be the right choice. However, it is really not the best option for most people that have a reasonably significant store of assets to pass along to their loved ones. One of the problems …

Does a Living Trust Provide Asset Protection?

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There are many positive benefits that are realized if you utilize a revocable living trust as the centerpiece of your estate plan instead of a last will. Many people are pleasantly surprised when they hear that you do not lose control of assets that you convey into this type of trust. Of course, from the name of the trust, they know that it can be revoked. However, there are other forms of control that are retained when the trust is intact. If you were to establish a revocable living trust, …