Trust and Estates

NY Wills — Why you need one and the Role of an Executor

by Fred Abramson

A will is one of the basic doc­u­ments that you will need for your estate plan­ning. If you die with­out a will, New York State Intes­tacy laws will dic­tate the how your estate shall be dis­trib­uted in addi­tion to the method of mak­ing such a dis­tri­b­u­tion.   This can have dra­matic consequences.

A will allows you to make deci­sions on dis­trib­ut­ing your prop­erty fol­low­ing death. With a will you can:

  • Name your ben­e­fi­cia­ries, who will receive your property.
  • Appoint a per­sonal guardian to raise your minor children.
  • Estab­lish trusts, such as a child\‘s trust.
  • Name an Executor.

The Execu­tor

The Execu­tor is the per­son who you decide to admin­is­ter your estate and carry out the terms of the will. The Executor:

  • Decides whether your estate needs to do through probate.
  • Pro­bates the will if necessary.
  • For the year fol­low­ing death, takes care of all your property.
  • Dis­trib­utes all of your property.
  • Pays all taxes.
  • Is respon­si­ble for the account­ing of the estate.

Why a Will is Impor­tant for Estate Planning

Even if you decide to dis­trib­ute most of your estate through other vehi­cles, such estab­lish­ing a liv­ing trust, it is still impor­tant to have a will. Why?

  • If you acquire prop­erty shortly before death and fail to make changes to other por­tions of your estate plan, if you have will,  the ben­e­fi­ciary you choose will inherit the asset.
  • Name some­one to take care of your chil­dren under the age of 18.

You may need only a will if:

  • You own only a small amount of  property.
  • Your sole con­cern is to pro­vide for your minor children.
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NY Wills Why you need one and the Role of an Executor

NY Estate Planning Legal Issues– Planning For Incapacity

by Fred Abramson

As we move on in life, there is an increased pos­si­bil­ity that you may become inca­pac­i­tated for some time.   This issue often becomes a prob­lem for fam­ily mem­bers when con­fronted with con­tin­u­ing life-support and mak­ing impor­tant finan­cial deci­sions. With a durable power of attor­ney, a liv­ing will and a durable power of attor­ney for health care, you can make sure that your wishes are granted with­out bur­den­ing your loved ones.

Finan­cial Decisions:

  • Durable Power of Attor­ney. This doc­u­ment allows you to name some­one to take care of your finances if your are unable to. If you fail to draft a durable power of attor­ney, your rel­a­tives and friends will have to peti­tion the court for the abil­ity to have con­trol over your finances.  If they do not agree about who has con­trol of your finances, a pricey and pro­tracted con­ser­va­tor­ship pro­ceed­ing may ensue.

Med­ical Decisions:

  • Liv­ing Will. This doc­u­ment acts as a con­tract with the doc­tor who is tak­ing care of you. It states your wishes about the type of health care you should receive if you are incapacitated.
  • Durable Power of Attor­ney for Health Care. Here you will appoint some­one to make your med­ical deci­sions if you are unable to do so. 
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NY Estate Planning Legal Issues Planning For Incapacity

Why you Should Purchase the Assets of a Company Rather than the Stock

by Fred Abramson

One of the prob­lems that you may encounter when buy­ing a busi­ness in New York is under­stand­ing how to struc­ture the pur­chase.  Basi­cally, there are two ways that you can buy a company:

  1. Asset Pur­chase;
  2. Stock Pur­chase.

In most cases, you will be bet­ter off pur­chas­ing the assets. There are three big ben­e­fits to buy­ing the assets and not pur­chas­ing the stock:

  • Tax ben­e­fits. With an asset pur­chase, you can give dif­fer­ent pur­chase prices among the var­i­ous pieces of the com­pany.  For exam­ple, cer­tain equip­ment can be deducted imme­di­ately so you may want to assign a greater price for those assets.
  • You can choose not to acquire lia­bil­i­ties of the busi­ness you wish to buy. Per­haps the com­pany failed to pay a sup­plier for goods it ordered two years ago.  The statute of lim­i­ta­tions on a breach of con­tract law­suit is six years, so you could be hit with a law­suit four years after buy­ing the company.
  • You don’t have to buy every asset of the cor­po­ra­tion. It could be in you best inter­est to buy only the prof­itable por­tions of the company.

Some­times you are not given the choice of how a busi­ness sale could be struc­tured.  Many busi­ness that are for sale require pur­chase of stock only for a vari­ety of rea­sons. For exam­ple, the seller may believe that there are tax advan­tages for sell­ing all the stock.  If you have to buy cor­po­rate stock, it is imper­a­tive to con­duct a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion of the corporation’s books and oth­er­fi­nan­cial deal­ings.  You can insert war­ranties and indem­ni­fi­ca­tion clauses in the stock pur­chase agree­ment. You may also be able to pur­chase insurance.

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Why you Should Purchase the Assets of a Company Rather than the Stock

New York Questionnaire for the Administration of an Estate

by Fred Abramson

Once a fam­ily mem­ber or friend dies, the admin­is­tra­tion process of the estate begins.  Here are some basic ques­tions that should be answered before going to your attorney\‘s office:

  1. Pro­vide the date of the will and check to see if there are any cod­i­cils to the will.
  2. What state was the will drafted?
  3. The names and addresses of execu­tors and trustees.
  4. Basic infor­ma­tion regard­ing the birth and death of the per­son who died.  The per­son who died is called the decedent.
  5. Pro­vide birth and death certificates.
  6. Review bur­ial and funeral instructions.
  7. Where did the dece­dent live?  For how long?
  8. Pro­vide a fam­ily tree of all fam­ily members.
  9. Pro­vide all addresses, tele­phone num­bers, social secu­rity num­bers, e-mail address for any­one who could pos­si­bly have an inter­est in the estate.
  10. Infor­ma­tion regard­ing the mar­riage, includ­ing date and place. If the deceased per­son was divorced, divorce papers and ex-spouse information.
  11. Any known prob­lems with the will?
  12. Fig­ure out if the fam­ily has any imme­di­ate needs.
  13. Any employ­ees? Find out their names and addresses.
  14. Does the deceased per­son have any trusts?
  15. The execu­tors should make a list of all assets of the deceased per­son. The key here is to think expan­sively to include as much doc­u­men­ta­tion as pos­si­ble.  Some impor­tant assets include bank accounts, stocks, life insur­ance, social secu­rity, safe-deposit boxes, per­sonal prop­erty, real estate.
  16. The execu­tors should also make a list of all lia­bil­i­ties.  This includes credit card debit, mort­gages, loans and bills.

Fol­low this link for more on how I can help you with your estate plan­ning  needs.

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