Lake Success, New York Estate Planning Attorneys

What is Estate Planning?

Estate Planning is an important step for all individuals and families to take, no matter how big or small the estate may be. First, what even makes up an estate? An estate is made up of everything you own, including your home, your car, financial accounts, investments, insurance, and personal possessions. Planning for how these possessions are dealt with after your passing is important to avoid your home state from deciding without you.

An effective estate plan addresses all of your assets and liabilities, both in the event of incapacitation or death. In the event of incapacitation, the estate plan will allow you to have designated in advance people that you trust to handle your legal, financial, and health care matters. It will also allow you to provide instructions specific instructions for your care, and if done correctly, give your trusted person or people the ability to plan to protect your assets and obtain the care you need without exhausting your own funds. In the event of death, the estate plan will provide for a designation for transfer of your assets, name guardians for minor children, and designate a person that you choose to manage the process on behalf of your estate. Additionally, with advance planning, an estate plan can address minimizing taxes, costs, and legal fees for the probate and estate administration process.

Lake Success residents often ask:

What happens if I die without a will?

In the event that you happen to die without a will, then under New York law you are considered to have died intestate. When this happens, your estate will be distributed according to state intestacy laws. These laws vary depending on your marital status and familial status. If you were married at the time of your passing and without a will, then under New York state law, your spouse will inherit the entire estate. If you were married and had children, then your spouse is entitled the first $50,000 of your estate. The remaining balance is then divided in half, half to your spouse and the remaining half will be divided among your descendants. If your spouse passed prior to you or if you were unmarried at the time of passing, the descendants will inherit the entire probate estate.

But what happens if you have no spouse nor any descendants? New York law will then distribute the estate to your parents equally. If your parents have passed prior to you, then your siblings, half and whole, will inherit your estate. If there are no parents or siblings, then your estate will be distributed equally between half of your mother’s family and half of your father’s family. Finally, if there are no family members the estate will pass to the state of New York.

The law will not factor in the degree of your emotional relationship with your family but distributions will be made according to blood relation. Therefore, it is extremely important to have an estate plan in place to avoid any unintended distributions of your assets and to ensure that those that you love will be the ones inheriting your estate.