Last Will And Testament In New York

A Last Will & Testament in NY is an estate planning document that most people are familiar with.

Your Will dictates how your assets will be distributed at death.

If you have not made a NY Last Will & Testament or have not done any other NY estate planning or Medicaid planning and live in the New York City metro areas of Manhattan, White Plains, Westchester, Long Island, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn or Staten Island, the NY elder law and estate planning attorneys at the Law Offices of Michael Camporeale, can help prepare your NY Last Will & Testament and provide you with the proper NY estate planning and Medicaid planning, in order to protect your assets and make sure they are passed on to the people you want to inherit.

Our estate planning attorneys and estate planning lawyers have been helping clients set up and prepare their last will and testaments as well as help them with their estate planning. We know what it takes to set up an estate in New York. We also understand estate planning better than any other firm in New York. Our experienced lawyers and attorneys have been helping clients in many areas in New York, including Staten Island, New York, Brooklyn, Bronx, White Plains, Garden City, and Melville. Call us today at (718) 475-9639 to speak to our estate planning lawyers and estate planning attorneys. We also have elder law lawyers and elder law attorneys, as well as NY probate lawyers who are ready to help you.

The Requirements For Validity Of A Will In New York

A Will in New York must follow formal requirements in order to be valid. If these formalities are not followed, the NY Will could be deemed not valid and/or contested at your death.

Therefore, it is imperative that you have your NY will drafted and supervised by an experienced NY estate planning and Medicaid planning lawyer to be sure it will be valid at your death.

In New York for a Last Will & Testament to be valid pursuant to EPTL Section 3-2.1, a Will (1) must be in writing; (2) must be signed at the end by the Testator; (3) the testator’s signature must be affixed in the presence of the witnesses or that the Testator must acknowledge his or her signature to each attesting witness; (4) Testator must declare to each witness that the document they are signing is in fact his/her Will; (5) must be signed by at least two attesting witnesses; (6) the witnesses shall sign and date the will within 30 days of each other and list their address to their signature. The law and the requirements for a valid NY Will and execution ceremony/will signing are very specific.

This is why you must have the right NY estate planning lawyer not only draft the NY Will, but also supervise the will execution ceremony in order to make sure it is valid.

We are experienced and well versed NY estate and Medicaid planning lawyers with offices located in White Plains, Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island.

There is a presumption of validity for a New York Will when an attorney supervises the signing and execution of a Will and also when a self-proving affidavit is affixed to the Will by the witnesses.

Your NY Will should have an Executor named, as this trusted person will be the person responsible for carrying out your last wishes. The Executor will be the person who will have to have your Will go through the formal NY Probate process at your death in the Surrogate’s Court in New York and ultimately have your estate settled and have your estate assets distributed to your beneficiaries pursuant to your wishes and the terms of your Will.

Get your questions answered - call me for your free phone consultation (718) 475-9639

Your NY Last Will & Testament Can Be Used To Account For Many Circumstances

The experienced and well versed NY Will, and estate planning attorneys from the Law Offices of Michael Camporeale located in White Plains, Long Island, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island can help you prepare your Will and your other NY estate and Medicaid planning documents to properly plan your estate, and can also probate your Will after death.

If you have minor children or grandchildren you might want to set up a testamentary NY trust in your Will so that they can inherit at a certain age in that a minor under the age of 18 can’t legally inherit from your estate. Your testamentary trust in your will can also dictate that a person could not inherit until they reach a certain older age. For example, if you felt that you did not want that person to inherit until they reached 21 or 25; that can be done in your NY Will. Your Last Will & Testament can be customized and tailored to meet your specific wants, needs and desires.

You would have to have a Trustee named for such a trust in your will. That person would manage and hold the assets of that minor until they reach the appropriate age.

If you have minor children you would want to name a NY legal guardian for that child in your Will until that child reaches the age of 18. The guardian would be legally responsible for your minor child until they reach age 18.

If you have a child who has special needs in NY or disabilities, you would want to set up a NY Special Needs Trust for that child’s inheritances; so that they could inherit from your estate and still be able to secure their government benefits like Medicaid and/or Social Security Disability.

An Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Can Set Up A Special Needs Trust In New York

The experienced NY estate planning and Medicaid planning lawyers at the Law Offices of Michael Camporeale located in White Plains, Long Island, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island are familiar with Medicaid and disability requirements and are the correct NY special needs planning lawyers needed to prepare these NY estate planning documents for those who wish to leave an inheritance to a person with special needs and disabilities.

If you have a child with special needs in NY and your estate plan is not done properly, the results can be catastrophic; in that an inheritance left to a disabled person could cause them to lose their Medicaid and Social Security Disability payments if they inherited outright and not through a NY Special Needs Trust.

If you have an Executor, a Trustee and/or Guardian set up in your NY Will, you will want to name a Successor and/or Alternate Trustee, Executor and Guardian in the Will in the event that something would happen to them and they could not or did not want to act in that role. You would want to have backup people named in your will to take on these roles, obligations and responsibilities.

Your NY Will should also make provisions if any of your beneficiaries named in your will die before you. You would want to make provisions to indicate where that part of your estate should go, for example; if you left a part of your estate to your child and your child passed away before you did, you might want your will to say that the share that was left to your child should then go to your grandchildren instead.

An Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Can Help You Take Advantage Of Estate Tax Saving Measures

If you have a large NY estate, your estate planning options would want to take advantage of certain estate tax saving measures. These issues can be explored and discussed with the NY estate Planning Lawyer at The Law Offices of Michael Camporeale.

If you have children from different marriages and are married, your NY estate planning goals need to be very specific and need to be addressed in a particular manner so as to make sure certain family members are not accidentally disinherited. These issues are very important and need to be discussed and explained.

If you have certain family members that you wish to disinherit in your NY Will, certain specific legal language is necessary and important if you anticipate a NY Will contest.

If you are anticipating a NY Will contest, discussing other NY estate planning options may be advisable. You may wish to create a NY Living Trust instead to avoid probate or a possible will contest.

If you have assets that have beneficiary designations, they may pass outside of your Will so you may end up either purposely disinheriting or accidentally disinheriting a certain individual. These are all issues which need to be explained and explored and discussed prior to drafting your NY Last Will & Testament.

As you can see, there are many things to think about and address when putting your NY will and estate plan in place and having the correct NY estate planning and Medicaid lawyer who is experienced in all of these areas is very important to help you achieve your very specific NY estate planning goals.

The New York elder law and Medicaid planning lawyers at the Law Offices of Michael Camporeale have been helping families with the proper drafting of New York Wills and all of their other proper New York estate planning and Medicaid planning documents in the New York City Metro areas of Westchester, Long Island, White Plains, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island for well over a decade.

For more information on New York Last Will And Testament, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (718) 475-9639 today.

Get your questions answered - call me for your free phone consultation (718) 475-9639