Long Island elder law attorneys provide advice to clients who are interested in making plans to address their legacy and to prepare for end of life issues. It is important for anyone concerned about securing his or her future or providing for his or her family to take smart steps to talk with an experienced legal professional. Getting personalized help is key because your family situation will affect what steps you need to take to secure your legacy. 
Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC can help you to make a plan that is right for you and your heirs. One of the most common situations that our legal team provides assistance with is when grandparents want to make an estate plan that provides security for their grandchildren.
To find out how we can help you if you are a grandparents and you want to make a legacy plan, you should give us a call. You can also read on to find out some basic estate planning advice for grandparents from our legal team — but remember that there is never any substitute for personalized legal advice.
Estate Planning Advice for Grandparents
As a grandparent, there are a few key issues that you will need to address if you want to provide an inheritance to your children or your grandchildren.
One of the first things that you need to consider is whether estate tax will be due on the inheritance that you intend to provide. If you have a larger estate and you leave assets to anyone other than your spouse — including if you leave assets to children or grandchildren — your estate could end up owing a big tax bill. If this is a concern for you, you should work with an experienced attorney to use tools to reduce your taxable estate.
You also want to take steps to protect the wealth you hope to pass on to children or grandchildren. If you need costly nursing home care and it is not covered by insurance —which it usually isn’t, since Medicare and private insurers only pay for skilled nursing care — the assets you intended to leave to your kids or grandkids could be quickly lost. You can avoid this by working with an experienced attorney to make a Medicaid plan.
Finally, you need to think about what will actually happen to the money you intend to leave to your children or grandkids after you have passed on. If your grandchildren are younger, they cannot directly inherit and begin managing the money, so you may need to name a guardian for the funds unless you want the court to appoint one. And, if you want to take more control over how the assets are used by children or grandchildren after you pass away, your best course of action may be to create a trust.
A trust can allow you to set limits or conditions on how trust assets are used so you can ensure that the funds serve your intended purpose. For example, you could specify that assets in a trust are to be used to pay for a grandchild’s college education or could specify that trust assets should be inherited at a particular time such as when your grandchild has turned 25. You can name a trustee who will manage the trust assets in accordance with your instructions in the trust document.
Getting Help from Long Island Elder Law Attorneys
Long Island elder law attorneys at Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC can provide the assistance that you need to ensure that your grandchildren are provided for with an appropriate inheritance. We can help you to determine how best to protect your assets as you age and how to structure the transfer of assets to your grandchildren so the money is safe and used to enhance their quality of life.
To find out more about how our legal team can assist you in making your estate plan as a grandparents, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (631) 265-0599 or contact us online at any time to get your personalized plans underway.
Mark S. Eghrari, Estate Planning Attorney
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