When I start representing someone who is about to become a Fiduciary (Executor or Administrator) of an Estate, I always talk about “how an Estate finishes”. Like many things in life and business, if you know where you are trying to go it is much easier to make a good plan to get there.
Not
There are two types of Surrogate’s Court Petitions that often give a lot a value. These are:
Petition to Compel Production of a Will and Petition to Compel an Accounting. These are proceedings that can be used when you are trying to get things going and nothing is happening. Not only are these petitions relatively
Basic definition – A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other asset for another person.
When doing Wills or handling Estates, we are often talking about fiduciaries. A
Sometimes in Surrogate’s Court proceedings there are parties who have an interest in the proceedings but for some reason they cannot legally participate. This can occur in any type of proceeding: Probate, Administration and Accounting are the most common. A party is considered “interested” if the proceeding affects them in some way. In order to
What happens if someone involved in an Estate is dead? These situations are very common. A few standard approaches apply….let’s look at a few situations:
The most important distinction to know is that PRE-deceased situations are very different than POST-deceased situations. When I refer to “PRE” and “POST” I am talking about when the person
When I do Wills for clients, I always discuss the option of doing Living Wills and Health Care Proxies. I consider these so important, and so fundamental to proper practice, that I offer them at no additional charge. Here are the basics:
LIVING WILL – This is a person’s written declaration that if they are
When I am discussing the possible preparation of a Will, I ask a series of questions that follow a general framework. This tends to bring all the issues to the surface in a logical way. I respect that people often want to just “tell me what they want the Will to say”, and that very
As noted in previous posts, aunts/uncles/cousins CAN inherit, subject to certain special rules.
During a kinship trial, cousin claimants not only have to prove their relationship, they also have to dis-prove the prior classes. Specifically, they have to prove that the decedent died without a spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces/nephews. It can be
If a person dies without a Will, and the closest relatives are aunts, uncles and first cousins, do they inherit in New York?
The answer is YES, but there are some special rules. Aunts, uncles and cousins can inherit if there is nobody in the prior inheritance classes (spouse, kids, parents, siblings, nieces or nephews).
Sometimes family members feud.
Sometimes it’s irreparable (in the eyes of the participants…..I would always beg to differ, but that’s another story).
Sometimes thoughts of money and mortality will lead a person to take action.
So they make a will….with one main purpose…..to make sure that “X” doesn’t get anything. Sometimes there are related purposes,
