What Documents Belong in a Complete New York Estate Plan?
A complete New York estate plan is built on four coordinated documents: a Last Will and Testament, one or more trusts, a durable Power of Attorney, and a Health Care Proxy. Together, these instruments decide who inherits your property, who manages your affairs if you become incapacitated, who makes your medical decisions, and how much […]
New York Estate Tax 2026: The $7.35M Exemption and the Cliff
For deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026, New York’s basic exclusion amount is $7,350,000 — meaning a New York estate valued at or below that figure passes free of New York estate tax. But here is the part that separates a competent plan from a costly mistake: New York […]
Medicaid Planning and Your New York Estate (5-Year Look-Back)
Medicaid planning and your New York estate intersect at one decisive question: will the assets you spent a lifetime building be protected from long-term-care costs, or will they be spent down before Medicaid pays a dollar? For most New Yorkers, the answer turns on the five-year look-back — the period during which New York reviews […]
Including Digital Assets in Your New York Estate Plan
To include digital assets in your New York estate plan correctly, you must do three things together: inventory every digital asset you own, grant your fiduciaries explicit legal authority to access them, and weave that authority through each of your core documents — your will, your trust(s), your durable power of attorney, and your health […]
How to Avoid Probate in New York
To avoid probate in New York, you must move your assets out of your individual name before death — most reliably by funding a revocable living trust (governed by EPTL Article 7), and by layering in beneficiary designations, payable-on-death accounts, and properly titled joint property. Probate is the Surrogate’s Court process of validating your Last […]
Do I Need a Trust or Just a Will in New York?
For most New Yorkers, the honest answer is: you likely need both — but rarely a trust instead of a will, and never a will treated as your entire plan. A will alone directs who inherits your property, but it must pass through Surrogate’s Court probate to take effect, and it does nothing while you […]