Davidov Law Group

Estate planning and probate are both processes which determine how your estate will be distributed among your inheritors upon your passing. Estate planning refers to the preparations and instructions you make for how you would like your assets to be handled. Probate is the process by which your wishes are carried out and your estate is distributed after your death. On the surface this may seem simple but in practice these processes are usually more complex.

What Is Estate Planning?

Estate planning may sound like an activity reserved for the financially well-off or those entering into retirement, but creating an estate plan can be beneficial to anyone. Everyone has an “estate” composed of everything they own and control. This can include everything from cars, real estate, and bank accounts to books and electronics. Estate planning refers to the creation of instructions for distributing your assets amongst your beneficiaries after you pass.

Estate planning is an ongoing process and will require revisions as new personal or legal factors present themselves. Some events which can affect the contents of an estate plan include marriage, divorce, income changes, or death in the family. It is never too early to start thinking about the future and having a detailed and well-drafted plan can prevent delays and fees when your assets are distributed.

Processes associated with estate planning can include:

• Creation of a will: A will is a document outlining the process and terms for how your assets will be handled after your death.
• Creation of a living trust: A trust appoints a trustee to manage an asset (or assets) on your behalf. Unlike a will, this agreement is active during your lifetime and assets named in a trust are transferred to the inheritor upon the time of your death.
• Power of attorney: If you become incapacitated and can no longer manage your medical or financial matters, you can appoint a person to legally handle your affairs.
• Appointing an executor: An executor is the person you choose to manage your affairs and estate during the process of probate after you pass.
• Reduction of taxes upon the transfer of your estate: The goal of estate planning is to transfer your belongings as you see fit. The process for best reducing taxes might not always match up with the way in which you would like your assets to be distributed. A good attorney can help you find the right balance.

Understanding Probate

Probate is the process of dividing, managing, and distributing your estate after you pass. This is a court-supervised process that aims to ensure your belongings are divided exactly as you set forth in your will. A legal representative will assist the executor named in your will to carry out your last wishes.

There are several disadvantages to probate which cause many people to avoid the process entirely. One of the most common issues is that it can be tremendously time consuming, potentially lasting years. During this time inheritors generally do not have access to the assets which have been left to them. Another complaint is that a long period of probate can be very costly. In many cases, fees are paid with funds drawn from the estate.

With proper planning you can minimize or even eliminate the probate process. There are several tools which sidestep probate including life insurance, living trusts, and joint ownership agreements. A knowledgeable attorney can help to determine what course of action is best for you.

If you fail to create an estate plan, and in the absence of a will, the government will distribute your belongings according to probate laws. Without a valid executor, a court appointed representative will be in charge of how your estate is divided. Many times this will go directly against what you may have wanted. The court may also choose an executor, such as a spouse, if that person would have reasonably been chosen by the deceased.

Dedicated Estate Planning Attorneys

Creating a detailed estate plan and preparing for probate can allow your inheritors timely access to your assets and save them from the headache of an extended period of probate. Our Nassau County estate planning attorneys at the Davidov Law Group can help you plan for the future and ensure your legacy carries on exactly as you intend.

It is never too early to start planning for your future. Contact us and schedule a personal consultation today.

Estate planning is not just for the well-off or those approaching their golden years. Everyone, regardless of age or the value of their possessions, can benefit from preparing for the future. Each person has an “estate” that is comprised of everything they own and estate planning simply refers to the process of determining how your possessions will be distributed after you pass. By planning early, you can help to ensure that your legacy carries on in exactly the manner you wish.

Deciding who will be included among your beneficiaries can be an emotional process which many people discover to be surprisingly difficult. You can never be sure where complexities will arise and the lack of clear instructions regarding your estate can lead to confusion during the distribution process. For example, if a person not mentioned in a will comes forward with a claim to part of an estate, a legal dispute can arise. It is important allow yourself the time to create clear and proper instructions to ensure your assets are distributed among precisely those who you intend.

After you pass, your estate will be evaluated and distributed amongst your named inheritors during a process known as probate. Not every item in an estate will go through probate, however it is a likelihood that is best to prepare for early. A poorly drafted will can lead to unnecessary delays with the probate process, keeping your loved ones from timely access to their inheritance. A long probate period can also burden your loved ones with unnecessary and expensive legal fees. By identifying critical areas early on, you can utilize tools such living trusts to minimize the time and fees associated with probate – or even eliminate the need for probate completely.

Without a plan in place, the courts may be left to decide the distribution of your assets on your behalf. If you are no longer able to manage your estate, the courts may distribute you assets according to probate laws. This can leave your loved ones with only a fraction of their entitled inheritance and will more than likely contradict what you would have wanted. For this reason, creating an estate plan early is among the most thoughtful and caring things you can do for your loved ones.

Compassionate Estate Planning Services

Understanding estate planning can be a complex process and starting early gives you and your loved ones the most amount of time to finalize your plans and make necessary revisions as they arise. At the Davidov Law Group, our Nassau County estate planning attorneys can provide compassionate legal advocacy every step of the way.

Contact us today and attend an upcoming workshop to learn about your options at no cost.

Stay in touch with Davidov Law Group online! Our firm has a variety of social media and other online accounts. Like, follow, friend, and share using any of the platforms shown below. You can also stop by our office, give us a call, or send us an email if you need a Nassau County estate planning attorney. We look forward to hearing from you!

CONTACT DAVIDOV LAW GROUP

Address: 1981 Marcus Avenue, Suite 231, New Hyde Park, NY 11042

Phone: (516) 806-4414

Email: Fill out a contact form here.

CONNECT WITH US ONLINE

• About Me
• Avvo
• Blogger
• Facebook
• Fav Star
• Flickr
• Foursquare
• Google+
• Justia
• LinkedIn
• Look Up Page
• Muck Rack
• Pinterest
• Scoop It
• Storify
• Twitter
• WordPress
• Yelp

When you hear that many elders rely on Medicaid to pay for long-term care, you may become alarmed. Most people are aware of the fact that Medicaid is only available to people who are financially needy. If a high percentage of seniors are on Medicaid late in their lives, they must be impoverished, right?

Unfortunately, there are people who wind up spending all of their resources paying for long-term care because they did not plan ahead effectively. However, if you are proactive about the implementation of a Medicaid planning strategy, you may never directly experience any financial hardships.

To qualify for Medicaid, your countable assets cannot exceed $14,850. People typically give assets to their loved ones before they apply for Medicaid, but you have to act in advance and get the right legal advice to make sure that you are complying with the Medicaid rules.

There is a five-year look back. You have to complete your gift giving at least five years before you submit your application to obtain eligibility.

Divesting yourself of assets is not necessarily going to result in poverty during this five-year interim. Your home is not considered to be a countable asset, so you would not have to dispossess yourself of ownership. (There is however an $828,000 equity limit in New York in 2015.)

Medicaid would not count the vehicle that you use for transportation, and you can maintain ownership of your personal effects and household belongings. Wedding rings, engagement rings, and heirloom jewelry would not be counted either.

You could continue to draw income during your spend down, so that would not be interrupted. Plus, if you are in a position to do so, you could create an income-only Medicaid trust.

The assets that you convey into the trust would not be counted for Medicaid purposes, and this can be an effective way to divest yourself of direct ownership of assets. Though you could not take back those assets, you could receive income from the earnings of the trust, and this could help you maintain your lifestyle.

Relevant to Everyone

Most seniors will need long-term care eventually, and it is difficult to pay out-of-pocket, so Medicaid planning is relevant to just about everyone.

Nursing home care is very expensive, and in New York the costs are particularly high. If you have to stay in a nursing home for two years, the bill can exceed $280,000, and some people stay longer. About 10 percent of nursing home residents remain in the facilities for at least five years.

If you take the right steps, you can potentially qualify for Medicaid without losing everything that you intended to leave to your loved ones.

Download Our Free Report

To learn more about Medicaid planning, download our special report. This in-depth report is free, and you can access your copy through this page: Medicaid Planning Report.

Estate planning is something that people often put on the back burner, and there are many reasons for this procrastination. One of them is the simple fact that it can be hard to know where to begin. There are various different estate planning documents that can be used, and the matter can be confusing.

To demystify things, you could sit down and discuss your estate planning objectives with a licensed attorney. In this post, we will look at some general questions that you may want to ask at the consultation.

I’m not rich. I should use a last will to state my final wishes, right?

A last will can be used as an asset transfer vehicle. However, you do have other options, even if you are not extraordinarily wealthy.

When a will is used, the executor must admit the will to probate. This a legal process, and it can be time-consuming and expensive. The heirs to the estate must wait out the probate process before they can receive their inheritances, and the amount of the inheritances can be shaved down by the costs that are accumulated during probate.

It is possible to proactively implement probate avoidance strategies.

How would I avoid probate?

There are a number of different ways to get assets into the hands of your heirs outside of probate. One very popular probate avoidance tool is the revocable living trust.

You retain control of the assets while you are living when you establish this type of trust. After you die, the trustee that you name in the trust declaration can distribute assets to the beneficiaries outside of probate according to your wishes.

I’m not comfortable giving everyone lump sum inheritances. Can I provide for each person in a different way?

The answer to this question is yes. An ideal estate plan will take all of the circumstances into account, and each respective person in the family will receive his or her inheritance in the optimal manner.

Financial matters are obviously important, but is there anything else I should know?

A well constructed estate plan should address the possibility of latter life incapacity. Many people become unable to make sound decisions late in their lives.

Your estate plan can include an incapacity component. Through the execution of a durable power of attorney, you can name a financial decision maker who could manage your financial affairs in the event of your incapacity.

With a health care proxy you could name a health care representative.

Schedule a Free Consultation

If you are ready to take action, our firm can help. We offer free consultations, and you can send us a message through our contact page to set up an appointment: Queens NY Estate Planning Attorneys

As you are going through life as a healthy adult, you may not concern yourself with possible physical limitations. After all, you eat well, you exercise, and you are approaching your retirement years in good health.

This may be a logical perspective, but you may want to look at a broader picture.

Long-term care is one of the most pressing matters within the elder law community because most people are going to need it. The need for living assistance is not a remote possibility; it is a likelihood, even if you have been in good health throughout your life.

How likely is it? The government maintains a website called longtermcare.gov, and according to the site, 70 percent of people who are reaching the age of 65 will need living assistance at some point in time.

Long-term care is a very big deal because of the fact that Medicare does not pay for custodial care. This is the type of care that you would receive in a nursing home or an assisted living community.

The average cost for a room in a nursing home in New York City is over $142,000 a year, while in Long Island, the average cost exceeds $148,000 a year. These prices have been rising on an annual basis.

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is something to be very aware of if you are pragmatically looking ahead toward your elder years. The Alzheimer’s Association tells us that 45 percent of people who are at least 85 are suffering from the disease.

To get back to good health for a moment, if you have embraced a healthy lifestyle, you probably expect to enjoy a good deal of longevity. As a result, it could be argued that someone who enters retirement in good health could eventually be quite vulnerable to Alzheimer’s, because of these longevity expectations.

Indeed, many people in nursing homes are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

To prepare for possible incapacity, you could take steps that lead to Medicaid eligibility. This government health insurance program does pay for long-term care, and most elders in nursing homes are enrolled in the Medicaid program.

Because Medicaid is a need-based program, you could plan ahead to protect your assets before you apply for coverage. This must be done with full knowledge of the 60 month look back, because you are penalized and your eligibility is delayed if you give gifts within 60 months of submitting your application.

Free Elder Law Consultation

If these facts have gotten your attention, our firm can help. We would be glad to answer your questions about long-term care, and we can help you start to plan ahead with Medicaid eligibility in mind if you want to go forward.

To set up a free consultation, send us a message through this page: Queens NY Elder Law Attorneys

Living trusts are very versatile, and they provide a number of different benefits. We will look at a few of them in this blog post, with an emphasis on spendthrift protections.

Measured Distributions

You may have someone in your family who is not particularly good with money. Perhaps this individual has come to you over the years for assistance, and you are concerned about what will happen after you are gone. You could leave this person an inheritance, but what happens if the money is spent too quickly? At some point, the family member could experience true financial hardships.

It is possible to account for this type of situation when you create a revocable living trust. You as the creator of the trust would typically act as the trustee and the beneficiary while you are living. In the trust declaration, you name a successor trustee to administer the trust after your death, and you would name your spendthrift family member as the successor beneficiary.

The trustee could be a person that you know or a corporate trustee like a trust company or the trust section of a bank. If you use a professional fiduciary, the trust will be administered in accordance with professional standards, and there will be no personal heartstrings to tug at.

In the trust declaration, you leave behind instructions with regard to the way that you want the trustee to distribute assets to the beneficiary after you are gone. For example, you could allow for the trustee to distribute the earnings from the trust on a monthly basis while the principal remains intact.

It would be possible to give the trustee the discretion to distribute assets from the principal under certain circumstances.

When you include stipulations such as these, you can go forward with peace of mind. The trust will be in place to provide your family member with support after your passing, but the trustee would have the ability to make sure that your beneficiary has a financial underpinning to draw from for the long haul.

In addition to the spendthrift protections that you can add, a revocable living trust can be of value for incapacity planning purposes. Many elders become incapacitated late in their lives, and you could empower the successor trustee to administer the trust in the event of your incapacitation.

Probate avoidance is another advantage. The trustee would be able to follow your instructions and distribute assets to the beneficiary in a timely manner, because the distributions would not be subject to the process of probate.

Free Consultation

If you are interested in creating a living trust, send us a message through this page to request a free consultation: Queens NY Trust Attorneys.

People often procrastinate when it comes to estate planning. Just about all responsible people know that they should have a plan in place, but it can be complicated, and many individuals simply put the matter on the back burner. To some extent this is understandable, but at the same time, you should educate yourself and take action to protect your loved ones.

This can be easier said than done, and we recognize the fact that it can be hard to find sound information that you can trust. Our firm makes an effort to educate people in and around Queens, and to this end we are offering a series of estate planning workshops toward the end of the month of March.

These workshops are absolutely free, and you can obtain a great deal of useful information if you attend a session that fits into your schedule.

Wills

We will look at last wills at the upcoming seminars. A will can seem like a very simple document, and it can seem like the best choice for you if you are not extremely wealthy. However, this is not always the case.

There are some limitations to take into consideration, and a will must pass through probate, which is a timely and potentially costly legal process. You should understand the facts and make informed decisions.

Trusts

Trusts are often used in the field of estate planning, and there are different trusts that serve different respective purposes. You do not have to be rich to benefit from a trust.

Trusts can facilitate timely asset transfers outside of probate, and you can also include stipulations when you create a trust. The trustee could be empowered to distribute assets to beneficiaries on a limited, ongoing basis over an extended period of time.

At the workshops, we will look at the value of trusts, and we will answer any questions that you may have.

Nursing Home Asset Protection

When you are looking ahead toward the future, you should certainly consider the eventualities of aging. The majority of seniors will eventually need long-term care, and nursing homes are exorbitantly expensive.

Medicare does not pay for long-term care, so this is an issue that is very important if you want to have something left to leave to your loved ones after you pass away.

We will explore potential solutions at our seminars.

March Seminar Schedule and Registration Information

We make things simple for people who want to attend one of our estate planning workshops. You can visit our workshop schedule page to see a list of our offerings, and you can click the appropriate link to register for the seminar that works for you.

The estate planning workshops will take place on October 7th and 8th, and