Practice Areas

Estate Planning & Probate

Planning for Your Future Begins Yesterday

Long Island, Queens - Probate Lawyers, Estate Planning Attorneys

A careful, thoughtful plan for your future can do wonders for peace of mind. There are many questions – which perhaps you haven’t even thought about – that you should be considering. Our attorney will ask you the right questions when drafting a will and will help you answer them. Some examples:

Is your funeral paid for? Will someone else have to pay for it?
Do you have a will? Who gets your things when you die?
Who would be the legal guardian of your children?
If you fall ill and can no longer work, how will you get by?
Do you have enough money to live out your life?
Are there others, such as charities, you want to give to when you die?
Do you want to be buried or cremated?

These and many other questions should be answered before you die. If you don’t make these decisions, someone else will. This can be difficult for a spouse or a child who is dealing with your death. If a court makes these decisions, the judge will be reqired to follow the New York statutes governing intestate succession. If you fail to draft a will, the court will have no choice on how your assets are distrubted. An attorney from our firm can help ensure your wishes are carried out as you intend.

What Happens when You Die

If you have a will or die intestate (without a valid will), then your estate, including all of your real and personal property, goes into probate administration. The process of probate involves determining the validity of your will, if one exists, and then dividing and distributing your property.

If you have written a will, then you should have appointed an administrator or an executor (someone who executes your wishes). If you have no will, then the probate court will appoint someone to such position. The duty of distributing your assets then falls upon the administrator, under the court’s supervision.

Naming an administrator by will can help ensure that your wishes are carried out as you have intended.

Probate Administration

If you have been named as an administrator in a probate proceeding in Surrogate's Court and are unsure what that means and what you have to do, we can help. Our probate administration attorneys have helped numerous clients over the years with their probate administration and other dealings with the Surrogates' Court. Our attorneys will help you inventory the assets of the estate, see to it that the notices have been properly filed, the debts and taxes of the estate have been paid and the real and personal property of the estate are distributed in a timely manner to the beneficiaries of the estate.

If you’d like to learn more about drafting a will or administerating an estate, call or contact a Queens probate attorney or estate administration lawyer at our firm today.