Local residents visit our New York estate planning attorneys for professional assistance to protect and pass on their assets. Many also expect guidance identifying the items that should be considered an asset and included in the planning. Most area families need to consider things beyond homes, cars, investment portfolios, and…
Proper New York estate planning has ramifications beyond the lives of the planners themselves. Whole families are impacted by these decisions. The far reaching consequences mean that it is often appropriate for concerned family members–like adult children–to remind parents of the value in proper estate preparations. An article yesterday in…
A common provision in wills and trusts, where one of the couple in a second marriage owns the marital home, goes something like this “My surviving spouse shall have the right to reside in the home for so long as he/she desires, provided he/she pays all taxes and insurance premiums…
by Michael Ettinger, Esq. A couple came in to see me today for the husband’s 88 year old father who is a nursing home in Florida. They now wish to bring him up to New York to be nearer to the family. He has about $600,000 in assets, including his…
by Michael Ettinger, Esq. Commonly used in estate planning today, disclaimer trusts allow the surviving spouse great flexibility in optimizing estate tax savings. Here’s how they work. Each spouse sets up their revocable living trust. Husband and wife are co-trustees of his trust, using his social security number and, similarly,…
by Michael Ettinger, Esq. The year 2001 was a space odyssey in more ways than one. It was also the last time we faced Federal estate tax rates as high as 55%, and exempt amounts as low as one million dollars. Nevertheless, this appears to be what we are going…
by Michael Ettinger, Esq. “Elder Law Estate Planning” is a niche area of the law which combines the features of elder law and estate planning that pertain most to the needs of the middle class. Estate planning was originally for the wealthy few. Middle class families did not consider themselves…
by Michael Ettinger, Esq. Recently, a couple came in to see me. They were people of means, having accumulated an estate in excess of two million dollars. Sadly, the husband, a fine gentleman, had contracted an incurable form of cancer. They knew it was time for a review of their…
By Michael Ettinger, Esq. Reflecting on this comment made to us by a client recently, the following thoughts came to mind. What do we actually do at Ettinger Law Firm? All we do is save our clients a lot of time, many thousands of dollars and the not so petty…
by Michael Ettinger, Esq. Previously we wrote about the lawyer as co-trustee in the second marriage setting. The main concern there was to protect the share and the interests of the deceased spouse and their family. This was a situation ideally suited for the lawyer as trustee due to inadequate…