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DESIGNATING DIFFERENT PEOPLE FOR DIFFERENT ROLES IN YOUR ESTATE PLAN

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As part of your estate plan, your New York City estate planning attorney will draw up a wide range of documents for you. As part of the process, you will need to designate people to act on your behalf. You might need to appoint an executor, a trustee, a general power of attorney, a healthcare prox and more. You do not need to designate the same person to act in every role.

Speak with your attorney about what the people designated for each role actually do so that you can designate the most appropriate person. For example, the executor of your will has a short-term assignment. Once directives in the will are carried out, the executor’s role is over. However, a trustee may need continue administering the trust for years. Thus, you might want to consider a potential trustee’s ability to continue to act well into the future, which might not be as big of a concern for an executor.

Different considerations go into deciding who to appoint to different roles, such as appointing a power of attorney or a healthcare proxy. An estate planning attorney will go over every role with you and has the experience to know what the most important factors are that you should consider. Make sure you ask your attorney about every role.

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A durable power of attorney allows an attorney-in-fact or an agent to make specific financial decisions on the principal’s behalf. A power of attorney document must be in writing and must comply with specific statutory formalities. Additionally, some banks may require parties to use their specific forms before they honor their power of attorney instruments. In most cases, you will have to sign your power of attorney document in the presence of a notary public and obtain the notary’s signature or seal. You may also need to sign your document in front of witnesses. You can limit your agent’s financial decision-making powers by specifying the types of actions your agent can take on your behalf. You can also further specify what types of financial decisions your agent cannot make.

Every power of attorney ends at the principal’s death. This means that if you die, your power of attorney is no longer effective, regardless of whether or not you revoked it or validly destroyed it. The termination is automatic. However, your power of attorney may also become automatically invalid if you become mentally incompetent. Unless you created a “durable” power of attorney, your power of attorney most likely ends at your mental incapacity. Although state laws may differ, most states require you to include certain words to express your intent in creating a durable power of attorney. You may need to include specific words, such as “to remain effective upon my mental incapacity” or “a durable power of attorney.”

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The first thing that you need to do after being appointed as a guardian over an adult in New York is to attend a six-hour class. In this class all of your duties and responsibilities should be explained, so pay careful attention. After that, you need to compile an initial report for the court that explains the condition of the adult over whom you have guardianship and details his financial assets. This report must be filed with the court within 90 days after you are appointed a guardian. An attorney can help you compile the required information.

Throughout your time as appointed guardian, you have a continuing duty to file yearly accountings with the court by May 31st every year. These accountings need to include all funds that came into the person’s account during the previous year and how you disbursed any funds. Finally, you must physically visit the person over whom you have guardianship at least four times every year.

 

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If you have an incapacitated adult relative who is unable to provide for his or her own needs, you might be able to have a court appoint you as a guardian in New York. This is often necessary if an elder relative does not have an effective General Durable Power of Attorney. You will need to go to court to be appointed as a guardian of an adult relative, so consider the services of a New York attorney to assist you.

The process of getting guardianship over an adult relative begins by filing a petition with the court requesting that a guardian be appointed. The court then appoints someone to be act as an evaluator. The evaluator investigates the situation to make an independent report to the court whether a guardianship is necessary and whether the person requesting guardianship is an appropriate person to have it.

When the evaluator has compiled his or her report, the court will hold a hearing. At the hearing, the person requesting guardianship must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the guardianship is necessary and that he is an appropriate guardian. The evaluator will present his or her report to the court and other interested parties will have a chance to testify. After hearing the evidence, the court will reach a final decision granting or denying the guardianship request.

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Many people fear that a spouse from a second marriage will not leave assets to the children of a previous marriage. If you leave all of your assets to your spouse in a simple will, this is a real concern. The second spouse is under no obligation to leave assets to your children from a previous marriage in his or her own will. Even if you and your spouse create joint wills that leave assets to all of your children, nothing prevents your spouse from changing his or her mind after you pass away.

With proper estate planning, however, you can avoid this problem and leave assets to your children from a previous marriage. In New York, an attorney can assess your situation and find the best option for you. For example, if your spouse lives in a home that you individually own and would eventually like to see pass to the children of your first marriage, you might want to give your spouse a life estate in the property and have it automatically pass to your children when your spouse passes away. In other situations, setting up a trust or leaving your children assets in your will might be better options. A qualified estate planning attorney can determine the best options for your family situation.

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Sometimes, you might be expecting to receive an inheritance and you know what to do with it before it comes. However, if you receive an unexpected inheritance, you might not know what all of your options are and what to do with the inheritance. An estate planning attorney can assist you in making sure that you do everything you need to do with the inheritance.

In some cases, you might not want the inheritance. For example, if you have to pay taxes on inherited real estate, owning the property might not be a good option in some financial circumstances. In this case, you can disclaim the inheritance. However, you have a limited time to do so and you must make your disclaimer properly. An attorney can help you disclaim an inheritance properly.

In other cases, you might need to pay taxes on an inheritance. Experienced estate planning attorneys are used to explaining what taxes need to be paid and when. The attorney can make sure that you do not get in trouble with the taxing authorities.

An estate planning attorney can help you with an unexpected inheritance in other ways. In most cases, your conversation with the attorney will be relatively short. The important thing is to have the conversation and make sure that you do everything right.

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In most situations, you can disinherit your heirs by simply leaving them out of your will. However, you generally cannot disinherit your spouse by will. According to most state’s probate laws, although you can disinherit any of your other relatives by written will, you cannot disinherit your spouse. Absent a valid prenuptial agreement created before you and your spouse married, you cannot use your will to disinherit your spouse.

Known as elective or forced shares statutes, surviving spouses have legal rights to minimum bequests. For example, your state most likely has a probate law allowing your surviving spouse to “elect” a minimum statutory share of her deceased spouse’s estate, instead of taking her testamentary bequest. This means that if you decided to leave your spouse a share of property below your state’s minimum elective statutory share, your spouse can reject the share under your will in favor of the minimum statutory share. In other words, your spouse most likely has a legal right to claim a third or other fraction of your estate.

Can you disinherit your other relatives, even though you may not be able to disinherit your spouse? Generally, you can in most states. This means that you can specifically omit your children as your legal heirs by stating such or not mentioning them. However, your state’s law may limit the disinheritance to existing children and not to children born after you created your will. Its important to consult with a qualified estate planning attorney to make sure that your intentions are properly carried out.

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In most situations, a stepchild will not inherit property from a step-parent after the step-parent dies. The step-child does stand to inherit from his or her biological parents, but all inheritances are dependent on the laws of the state in which you live. Talk to a your estate planning attorney for more detailed information.

  • Intestacy: When you die without will, your stepchildren are very unlikely to inherit anything at all. In some states, step-children have no intestacy rights, while in others, a step-child is the last person who stands to inherit from a step-parent before the state does. This essentially means that if there is no spouse or biological relatives of the step-parent that survives him or her, the step-child inherits. If there is no step-child, or offspring of that child, the property goes to the state.
  • Wills and Trusts: If you create a Will you can choose to leave as much property to your stepchildren as you like. Similarly, if you create a trust you can choose to name your stepchildren as beneficiaries so they can receive the benefit of the property you transfer to that trust. A person creating a Will can also choose not to leave anything to his or her children, including step-children.
  • Adoption: While a step-child’s rights to inherit from a step-parent are much more limited than the parent’s children, a step-child that a step-parent adopts has the same right to inherit as any other child. State inheritance laws do not differentiate between children and adopted children, even if the adopted children are former step children.

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State Requirements: Each state has its own set of rules about how a living will must be written. They also have different rules about how they are used and who can create them. While some living wills made in one state will be enforceable in another, this isn’t always true. It’s important that if you move, you talk to a lawyer in your area and create a new living will that complies with the laws of your new state.

State Restrictions: Even though the vast majority of states allow for living wills, there are a small number that do not recognize them at all. If you move to one of these states you’ll have to enact other advance directives that will enable you to ensure your health care decisions are honored. States may also place different limits on when you can use a living will that other states may not have.

Other Directives: A living will is not a substitute for other types of health care directives, so even if you move and create a living will, you may also have to create a health care proxy. Living wills are great for putting your choices in writing, but in your health care proxy you designate an agent who will stand in for you and make the decisions you cannot, communicate directly with your doctors, ask questions, review your medical records and take other actions that your living will cannot.