The first call is free, and it is a phone call, not a video meeting.
Estate planning rarely starts with a birthday or a resolution. It starts when something in the family changes and the paperwork no longer matches. These are the four we hear most.
If both parents die without a will, a judge picks the guardian and state law decides what the children get and when. A basic plan names the person you would actually choose and puts an adult in charge of the money until they can handle it.
Leaving everything to a spouse and trusting it reaches your children later is the most common way children from a first marriage end up with nothing. There are structures that provide for a spouse for life and still protect what the children inherit.
Real estate is probated in the state where it sits, so a second home can open a second probate case in a state your executor has never dealt with. This is avoidable, and it is the reason we plan across all three states rather than just one.
Once someone loses the capacity to sign, the documents can no longer be created and the family is looking at a guardianship proceeding instead. The window for planning closes earlier than most people expect.
Most plans are done in three to six weeks, and most of that is waiting on you rather than on us. Here is the whole sequence.
You describe the family and what you own. We tell you whether you need a will, a trust, or something simpler. Nobody is billed for this.
A longer conversation about the assets, the people and the outcomes you want. This is where the awkward questions get asked: who is capable of being executor, who should not be, and what happens if someone dies out of order.
Before any drafting begins, you will know exactly what your estate planning package includes and what it will cost. Our comprehensive estate planning package generally includes approximately 15 documents, all covered by one flat fee.
We prepare the documents and you review them. Signing is done with the witnesses and notarization each state requires, because a will that was not executed properly is not a will.
A trust that was never funded does nothing, and this is the step that gets skipped most often. Deeds get recorded, accounts get retitled, beneficiary designations get checked. After that the plan gets reviewed when the family changes.
Not sure whether you need a will or a trust? That is what the first call is for.
We do the drafting and the parts with legal formalities attached. You decide who gets what and who is in charge; our job is to make sure the documents actually do what you meant.
The set almost everyone needs: a will, a power of attorney for finances, a health care proxy or advance directive, and guardian nominations if there are children.
A trust is worth the cost when it avoids probate on property, keeps an inheritance out of a beneficiary's divorce or creditors, or provides for someone who cannot manage money themselves. When it would not, we say so.
Real estate outside your home state is the most common reason a plan that looked complete still ends up in probate. Transfer on death deeds, trust ownership and joint titling each solve it differently.
New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania treat wills, deeds and inheritance tax differently. We practice in all three, which matters if you live in one and own something in another.
This firm settles the estates where the planning was missing or wrong. That is where the list of things to avoid comes from.
A trust only works if the assets are actually moved into it. That step is part of the engagement, not an afterthought left to you.
You will be able to explain your own plan to your family. If you cannot, it has not been explained properly yet.
Call (917) 515-1825 or contact us online to get started
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Knowledgeable, responsive, and extremely easy to work with throughout the trust creation process. Stefan created a highly organized set of documents and walked me through everything step by step from start to finish. I would highly recommend reaching out to him if you are considering estate planning or looking for guidance on setting up a trust.
None of this is unusual and none of it requires bad luck. It is what the default rules do when nobody has written anything down.
Without a guardian nomination the court chooses, from whoever comes forward. It may be the relative you would have picked. It may be the one who files first.
Intestacy rules split an estate by relationship, not by intention. A long term partner you never married inherits nothing, and a spouse may share the estate with children in proportions you would not have chosen.
Probate is slower, costs more, and puts what you owned and who you left it to on the public record. Property in a second state can mean going through it twice.
Powers of attorney and health care documents are the half of estate planning that matters before anyone dies. Without them, a family that needs to pay your bills or make a medical decision has to ask a court for permission first.
The documents that cover the four situations above are not complicated or expensive to put in place. What makes them expensive is needing them and not having them.
Tell us who is in the family and what you own, and we will tell you what you actually need.
What a will can and cannot do, and what New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania require for it to be valid.
Learn More →The documents that let someone pay your bills and speak to your doctors if you cannot.
Learn More →A way to pass real estate outside probate, and where it is available.
Learn More →Pick a time below, or call (917) 515-1825. The first fifteen minutes are free.
A phone call, not a video meeting. It helps to know roughly what you own and who is in the family.
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Tell us who is in the family, what you own and whether anything is already written down. We will come back to you with what we would recommend.
