NYC Estate Planning Lawyer

If, during estate planning, your dad mentioned that you sell the house, you need to do it right.
Instead of using a realtor to sell the house, another possibility is to use an investor. Here, you sell the house to a company that specializes in buying houses. The company purchases the house irrespective of the state the house is in. The good thing is that if you strike an agreement with the company, the process is short, and you end up with cash in hand.
Before you sell, however, it’s ideal that you do some research. This is because a startup company might not have the funds to give you the best value on the home. Work with an established company to enjoy the process.
The benefit of this method is that they take up any liabilities that you have – older and present. They will factor in any debts and repair costs on the house. This means you let go of the house “as is” – no modifications needed.
Repairs usually cost a lot of money. With an investor, you don’t spend a dime on repairs.
However, you have to understand that you won’t get a fair price. Since the investor is factoring in the liabilities that come attached to the house, they include the costs into the final offer they give you.

This is where you sell the home without involving an agent or a third party.
If you are fed up with paying a commission to a realtor, then you can go with this method. The main goal of this method is that you save some money on the process since you have eliminated the middleman.
However, studies show that while many people started selling off a house on their own, only 3 out of 10 of them had any success with the method.
Bypassing the third party also means that you have full control over the process. This way, you can devote more time as compared to using a real estate agent, who is handling many clients simultaneously.
To make headway in the process, you need to have some expertise in the market, which is not easy. You also need enough time to advertise the house, take potential buyers on visits, and prepare it for the market.

The Process

When you decide to go at it alone, there are a few steps you can undertake to make it a success:

• First, you need to come up with an asking price using the current property values within the neighborhood for properties that have similar features such as the size, rooms, landscaping, etc.
• Let the buyers know that you have a property for sale. While an agent or realtor would have done this for you, it is up to you to do it. You can enlist the services of a marketing agency to do this for you.
• Come up with a schedule for showing the house to potential buyers.
• Once a prospective customer makes an offer, and you accept it, negotiate the price, reach an agreement, and then come up with conditions for sale to proceed.

The Downsides of this Method

When you choose this method, you experience a few hurdles. First, if you set the price too high, you might end up having the house inactive on the market for weeks, even months. If you set it too low, you end up with less than what it is worth.

When it comes to selling a house that you have inherited from your parents, you must handle a set of issues that we have covered in this series. Selling off the home might be a good idea if you won’t stay in it, but it is paramount that you inform your siblings of the intention so that you avoid disputes.

It is prudent that you work with professionals as well. These include real estate agent, a financial planner, a home inspector, an estate planning lawyer, and many more to make sure the sale goes through. Stranded? Call us today for more information.

When you inherit the property, you also inherit a lot of liabilities, as well as damages.
Since you have become the new owner, you need to try and have the right insurance policy in place to make sure the house is protected.
If the home came with a homeowner’s insurance policy, you are in good hands because it saves you a lot of expenses.
With this kind of insurance, you can mitigate any costs that come with damages to the house the time it is still under the probate process. Additionally, if you are planning to renovate the home, you need to have insurance to cover costs in case someone gets hurt while working on the home.
You need to reach out to the insurance company so that you rest assured that the home is insured adequately. Call the homeowners agent and let them know that the owner of the home has died, and you need to have the policy updated. The agent might request a copy of the death certificate to certify this info.
You also need to tell the policy provider that since the owner died, you are now the primary contact, and you need all communication sent through you.
The agent will require a letter to prove that you are the legal administrator of the house. However, this varies from one insurer to the next.
Many providers decide to retain the policy until it expires. When you contact the insurance provider, make sure you ask about the time left on the policy and whether there are any due payments so that you don’t end up with an uninsured home.
When you understand more about the policy, the next step is to continue with the payment of the insurance premium. Make sure you submit the payments on time after you inquire about how to make the payments each month.
To keep this policy active, you need to protect the property. Insurance companies like seeing that a person is living in the home because then they are sure that the home will be well looked after. If you don’t have someone living there, it is ideal that you keep the house in proper condition.
Check on the house at least once every week to make sure it is ok. If you don’t have someone to do this, then ask the realtor to get a property manager for you.

Research Alternative Policies

If you aren’t happy with the current policy, you must get a new one. You don’t have an obligation to retain the existing policy, but if it is serving you well, then you can still keep it.

When you take the house, you need to be sure about the taxes that it comes with. An estate planning attorney can advise you on these taxes and what to do when you are faced with them.

Tax at the National Level

When you take over a house, the national government will only be concerned about taxes that come up due to the capital gains that you make. They don’t impose any inheritance tax on the house, and the good thing is that it won’t attract any income tax at all.

State Inheritance Tax

In most states, you don’t need to pay tax on the house, though some states charge this. If the asset passes down to you, it is exempted from inheritance tax in most states. You need to talk to your estate planning lawyer to give you a heads up on what taxes you need to pay.
The inheritance isn’t considered a taxable income, which means you don’t have to include the house on your income tax return.

Capital Gains Tax

This form of tax is enforced on the difference between the initial cost of the asset and the sum that you sell it for. If you dispose of the house at a loss, then you won’t be taxed at all. If you dispose of it at a profit, then you pay tax on the gain.

You need to understand the type of insurance on the house as well as the taxes you are liable for to secure the home. Work with the insurance company as well as an estate planning attorney to get the process right.

Before you even think about paying off a mortgage, you first need to inform the mortgage company that the person that was responsible for the payments is gone, and you are now in charge.
The good thing is that the requirement for informing the mortgage company that the owner of the house is deceased isn’t uniform across states. This means that you need to consult with an estate planning attorney to know when to tell them.
However, the earlier, the better, because if you delay the process, the interest on the loan will grow, and you won’t be able to handle it.

The law stipulates that when you inherit any property that was used as collateral to get a loan or any other financial assistance, you take up the loan. While you won’t be accountable for the debts that your parents accrued, anything that comes into your hands, which has a debt, means you take up the debt, and after this, you get to decide what to do next.

When you inherit a home with a mortgage, you need to understand how much it is before you decide what to do. Remember that a mortgage isn’t something you can joke around with; failure to repay means the house can be repossessed.
Talk to the mortgage company to know how much mortgage is pending. Once you determine the mortgage, it is time to understand how to repay it.

For you to be at peace with yourself, you need to try and repay the mortgage. Here are a few ways you can do this on the inherited house:

• Sell off the property, and then use the proceeds from this sale to clear the remaining loans.
• If you don’t want to sell the property and instead want to move in, then you will need to refinance the debt to take up full ownership. Before you can start paying off the debt, the bank will most likely assess your finances to make sure you can repay the loan.
• If you have debts of your won, or the bank realizes that you cannot refinance this mortgage, then you have to sell it off.
• If the debt is too much that even the sale of the house won’t pay off the mortgage? In such a scenario, you won’t be held responsible for the excess debt that the property has accrued. Usually, this scenario happens when the litigation process has taken too long, and the payments have accrued.

The law requires that the mortgage on the house needs to be paid according to what you agreed upon. This includes the ability to repay the full amount by the agreed-upon date, regardless of what happens.
Mortgages, just like any other payments, are subject to payment of penalties when you are late, or when you fail to make the payment on time. So, if you don’t make early payments, you will find a debt that has accrued to massive amounts.
If you fail to submit the payments on the due date, then you might be given an extension. If again you fail to pay by the date given as the grace period, the lender files a notice of default in your name.
If you fail to pay for some time, then the lender will initiate a process to foreclose the house. This can happen anytime from 3 months after the first missed payment.

You need to understand the financial obligations of a house when you inherit it. Work with a financial planner and an estate planning lawyer to know what is required of you and what to do in case of any default on payments.

Sibling rivalry usually rears its ugly head when the parent passes on, and the beneficiaries need to divide the estate amongst the beneficiaries. When we have disputes, you are looking at a lengthy and expensive legal process.
If your parents lacked an estate plan before they died, then you have a huge task ahead of you. It remains that with a dispute on the house, selling it off might not be possible till you resolve this dispute amicably.
Here are a few ways to resolve disputes:

• Work with a mediator
  When you disagree with other beneficiaries, you can work with a go-between to solve the problem. A skilled intermediary can help bring some sanity to the argument and bring the beneficiaries together. To get the right mediator, talk to your estate planning lawyer to give you referrals.
• Liquidate the house
  When a few of you lay claim to the property, and don’t seem to agree on who takes it, the best option is to sell it off and then share the proceeds.
• Use an independent fiduciary
  If you don’t trust the executor your parents chose, you have a right to choose a different one. This is only possible if you can afford to pay them.
  You can decide to handle the issue as a family, under the guidance of an estate planning lawyer. Here is a lowdown on how to handle this amicably:
• Understand the person liable for managing the house while the dispute rages on.
• Calculate the expenses that come with managing the house and choose the person responsible for handling the costs.
• If you agree to sell it, understand the costs and decide if the proceeds from the sale will cover this.
• Decide on the distribution of the proceeds from the sale.
• List the duties of each beneficiary in the process.

As a beneficiary, it is ideal to know what the value of the house is according to current market estimates. The aim is to ensure you have the right report for the taxable gain or loss on the house, to keep inventory, and to know how much each person might receive when you sell the house – that if this is what the will demanded. This info is also necessary when you start the estate planning process for your new property.

• Sell It
  The fastest way to value the property is to put it on the market and let buyers bid on it – if this is what the beneficiaries want.
  However, you need to make sure your siblings know of your intention before you go ahead with it; otherwise, it might give rise to other problems.
• Use a Real Estate Agent
  If you don’t plan to sell it, use a real estate agent to get the best estimate. This requires that you put to task a few agents to have a walkthrough and give you an estimate. An excellent real estate agent gives you the right number, not too high and not too low so that he doesn’t get your expectations high.
• Work With a Professional Appraiser
  The most reliable way to know the estimate of the house is to use a professional appraiser. This person comes with an unbiased view of the house and won’t inflate the value for any reason whatsoever. Talk to a banker, realtor, or a mortgage broker to get a recommendation.

When you decide to sell a house you just inherited, you first have to eliminate any issues that might cause hurdles in the process. Sit down with your relatives and find a way to resolve problems the right way. You also need to appraise the house in the current market situation. Talk to an estate planning attorney today to start the process.

Many heirs know that they can inherit their parents’ home at one time or another, but only a few understand what process their parents went through to transfer the house to them.
Understanding the process gives you an idea of what to do when you receive ownership of the house. Let us look at the different ways your parents could have transferred the house to you.

Transfer of Ownership

Here, your parents give the house to you through the transfer of ownership. This means they changed the title to your name, making you the new owner.

Joint Tenancy

This is when your parent gives you the home as a joint owner. This way, you only gain ownership when the parent dies. You get to own the house directly without any probate process.
The option doesn’t come without certain risks, though – if your parent gave you ownership of the house through joint tenancy, your creditors have the authority to seize it to clear any debts you have accrued.

Transfer-on-Death Account

Here, they come up with an account that directs the trustee to give you ownership when they pass away, but they retain full ownership when they are alive. However, you need to seek the advice of an estate planning lawyer to understand whether your state has this provision.

Employing a Living Trust

Another good way to acquire the property is via a living trust. Here, your parents transfer the ownership to you, but it only gets activated when they pass away.
A living trust bypasses probate, and the house is safe from your creditors as well.
Your parents can use a trustee, but need the services of an estate planning lawyer to write the trust agreement. When they die, the trustee transfers ownership to you as per your parents’ desires, and then closes down the trust.
Identifying the process through which your parents transferred the house to you helps you to understand whether your creditors will have a field day or not. Find out more about this when you talk to your lawyer.

Knowing the individual that has been chosen as the executor of the estate is an easy step – all you need is to scrutinize the will your parents left behind. Well, this assumes that you have access to a copy of the will left behind by your parents.
Now, what if the deceased didn’t leave a will telling you who the executor is? Or what If there has been a delay before presenting the will to court?
If you hear nothing about the executor, your role is to try and make sure you identify him using various means. Go ahead and file a petition called a caveat with the court. This document alerts the court that you need to be notified when the will gets to the probate.

When your parents leave a house in your name, and you wish to know how the process played out, ask the estate planning attorney. He will assess the circumstances in which you received the house then advise you accordingly.
Make sure to read part 2 of this series, because we are just getting started.

If you were to value your business today, how much would you estimate the figure at? A business valuation is a way to get some facts regarding the actual worth of the business, especially in terms of monetary value.
When you intend to pass on your business to another person, it is just right that you have an assessment done by a professional. This will give you the resale value as well so that you can decide whether the person you wish to pass the business on is worthy of such property.

You will often hear the word “succession planning” being floated around in business circles.
As a business owner, you need to have a succession plan so that you can transition your business to a new owner, preferably a family member, after you die or when you withdraw from the business.
The plan is a comprehensive document that includes a list of new owners, managers, and their duties. The aim is to identify a few people that can step into your shoes and run the business the way you need to do it after you become incapacitated.
The plan also outlines a few other things, such as how to transfer ownership when you aren’t in the capacity to run the business. It also describes how to bring in new employees, how to pay them, and the resolution of business disputes.
A succession plan needs to have an estate plan that identifies the different ways you want the property to be inherited when you pass on.
For more information regarding estate planning, contact us today.

If you own a business in partnership with someone else, then it is prudent that you consider an agreement that describes what you own, how you define the business, and what should happen in the event of your death.
A crucial part of the agreement is to determine how to reach the business share, which is not such an easy task as it seems.

Your succession plan won’t be complete without a will. This is the last testimony that lists the beneficiaries that will take over what you own in the business.
Additionally, the will allows you to name a representative to run the probate process and distribute the assets properly when you pass away.
Make sure you work with an estate planning attorney to come up with a comprehensive will for your estate. The document needs to make sure all your business assets have been assigned a beneficiary.

If I was to have a say in the estate plan that you are coming up with, then a living trust is the best way to go as a business owner. The document comes as a changeable (revocable) and unchangeable (irrevocable) type.
When you have a trust instead of a will, you enjoy various benefits. First, your beneficiary won’t have to go through probate to get the assets that you have allocated him. This allows them to avoid wasting a lot of time and reduces expenses.
The second benefit is that your case will not be public. Remember that the probate process is public, and all the documents that are involved are available to the public to scrutinize. Using a will avoids this hurdle.

As a business owner, you need to make sure you have what it takes to determine your business succession. Remember that when you can’t make decisions, the business still needs to continue operating correctly. Enlist our services today to make sure you get your succession plan in motion.

Filing for bankruptcy is a normal thing among many individuals. But the situation changes when you, unfortunately, die after you file for this.
Having a will or a revocable living trust will give out instructions on who to take over your estate when you become deceased. However, understand that all your financial obligations need to be paid off in full before the remainder of the estate gets passed down to your heirs. This decreases the figure that the heirs will collect.
If you die after filing for a liquidation bankruptcy, the case goes on smoothly because this form of liquidation doesn’t require active participation from you. The executor of the estate will have to sell off your property to pay off the various people that you owe money. When the bankruptcy case is concluded, the remaining part of the property is distributed among your heirs.
A repayment plan bankruptcy is different from the liquidation state. Here, the strategy consists of a repayment plan of between 3 and 5 years, which means the executor has to come up with a way for the beneficiaries to get involved in paying off the loans.
When you die soon after applying for this form of bankruptcy, then the executor has to consult with the court for directives on how to go about handling the situation. The executor can ask for:

• Request the case to be dismissed so that the creditors go for repayment from a probate hearing.
• Ask for a hardship acquittal whereby the executor petitions the judge to remove any obligation of paying the debts back.
• Request the court to convert the case into a liquidation bankruptcy to have the ability to liquidate the property and settle the debts.
• Requisition the court to carry on with the case as a repayment plan bankruptcy whereby the beneficiaries can decide to continue with the settlement plan.
  These are the options available to the executor from the court. However, the court retains the authority to choose the best course of action depending on what will work out well for both parties involved.

To safeguard your assets against creditors, enlist the services of an estate planning lawyer to come up with an irrevocable trust.
This trust isn’t easy to call off or alter. When you transfer assets to this trust, the burden of ownership is automatically taken off your shoulders, which means you don’t have any authority to modify the stipulations of the trust. So, the money or assets that have been added to the trust won’t be used to handle creditors’ bills, rather it will remain in the trust and benefit your family later on.
Coming up with this type of trust needs to be timely. If you do it knowingly so that you can avoid paying off debts, then this won’t work. This means you need to set up the trust very early so that it doesn’t seem to be a premeditated plan.

If you become deceased within 180 days of your child filing for bankruptcy, then the child must disclose this to the bankruptcy executor. If the heir filed for a liquidation bankruptcy, then the executor can sell off a few properties to clear the debts accrued.

TBankruptcy can affect the decisions you make during estate planning. Make sure you understand the situation you are in and make amends before you finalize your estate plan.

Investment accounts, insurance plans, and retirement accounts come with beneficiary designations. You ought to assign a beneficiary for these accounts so that he is paid the benefits when you become deceased.
A lawyer can help come up with these documents, but he won’t keep updating these designations – it is up to you.
If you haven’t assigned beneficiary designations, the advisor will remind you because his role is to scrutinize your financial documents and make sure they are complete.
Additionally, you ought to update the designations that you initially established when setting up the account. At times you end up with a designation that isn’t updated, which means you will end up with a probate process to determine the allocation.

Coming up with an estate plan is one thing: reading and interpreting it correctly is a different aspect altogether. Since the documents are usually written in legal jargon and might not mean much to you, an advisor will help interpret the information for you.

In as much as the lawyer has given you the lowdown on what can happen in different circumstances, the advisor will emphasize this fact. For instance, he will tell you how the plan changes when you decide to buy another house.
If you came up retirement plan some time back, the advisor tells you what happens when you decide to retire early or late.
A divorce will impact how you make decisions, and it also affects the execution of the plan. A good financial advisor will enumerate these changes and assist you in effecting necessary modifications to suit the plan.
Whenever you find yourself in a tricky situation, try and understand what it will do to the estate plan before you go ahead to make a decision. Don’t be in a rush to come up with decisions before you analyze the entire situation.
Even when the plan is going smoothly, try and make sure you know the effect any upcoming event or process has to your plans and make adjustments.

The advisor will try to be there any time things aren’t going your way. He will do substantial work on your behalf when you aren’t emotionally competent to do so. He, for example, liaises with the lawyer to determine the tax payment procedure or helps you comprehend the mortgage repayment procedure when you inherit a house.
In short, the advisor fills in the gap when you want somebody to handle financial tasks that are beyond your reach at the moment.
Once you have many tasks to handle at the same time, the advisor guides you on what should come first.

If you need to know right away what steps to take when things go wrong, you need an unbiased professional to work with. The advisor will interpret situations on your behalf and explain the predicaments in black and white.
Many times, we sugarcoat everything in such a way that we don’t see things the way they are. This way, we end up not reacting to situations the way we need to. However, when we have a professional who has our best interests at heart, then they will let us know whether what we are doing is right, and the consequences of doing it the wrong way.

For this process to work, you need to get an experienced, highly qualified advisor. You can get referrals from your friends and colleagues. Alternatively, talk to your estate planning lawyer to recommend an excellent financial expert for you to work with today.

Many children end up being shocked when they find that their patent ended up changing a will to a beneficiary that they don’t know.
If you see your parent once every few months and there is someone else who sees them every weekend, then you will be in for a shock.
Our parents cherish the love that we give them when they are in their sunset years. We have seen cases where the entire estate was left to a gardener or a cleaning lady just because they were there when the person needed them. You were not present.
So, if your loved one needs assistance when they are old, you should make time and be there for them. Don’t force your parent to rely on strangers to take care of them when you are alive.

Try and make sure you have the wishes of your parents on paper. If your parent tells you that they wish to have their estate distributed among the kids equally, and you don’t use the chance to document this, then you will be in for a rude shock. Even an attorney won’t help you out.
What you need to do is to ask your parent questions when they tell you that they want something to happen. Try and probe him to get more information regarding the estate. You then get some witnesses and let your dad document his wishes on paper.
You can even ask an estate planning attorney to come in and help handle the situation for you.

When your parent is in his sunset years, take time to find out what they own and where it is located. Let them tell you how the various estates are titled and what needs to be done before it is too late.
You need to put aside your shyness and talk to your parents. Try to tell them why you are asking all the questions so that they don’t feel as if you want them to die now. Let them know that you are asking the questions because you don’t want their assets to fall into the wrong hands.
You also need to ask the questions because you don’t want your parents to get scammed by someone that isn’t part of the family.

When people get old, they become reluctant to talk to lawyers. They feel that it is a waste of time and money. Instead, they wish to write down their wishes and save the money that they end up using as fees.
The sad thing is that the wills that are made from home won’t be valid unless they have some clauses. Try and talk to your parents into talking to a lawyer.
The lawyer will review the documents and then advice your parents on what to do. The lawyer will also go step by step to understand what the parents want and put this in writing.
Remember a will needs to be prepared in front of two witnesses to make it valid. The lawyer makes sure everything that needs to happen does so the right way.

When you sit back and wait for your dad or mum to come up with a will, you might get shocked. What you need to do is to make sure you help them to come up with the best estate plan.

Technology has processed faster than the regulations that need to be set up to make sure that digital data is handled in the same manner to physical assets when someone eventually passes on.
Many suggestions have come up, with people suggesting that we need to take it upon ourselves to let our loved ones have access to our digital assets.
This is because all our lives are now wrapped around the digital devices that we have. We have stored our passwords, account details and memories behind a single password that only we know about. With this said, it seems we need to begin planning what will happen to our digital assets sooner than later.

Now that digital currency is the in thing and everyone has a bitcoin wallet, have you ever thought about what happens to your bitcoin when you pass on?
A recent article talked about how nearly 4 million dollars’ worth of bitcoin has been lost forever – just like that. The loss has been attributed to the early buyers who threw out their old hard drives that held their coins.
If you are the kind of person that thinks ahead, then you must have organized for the private keys to be given to a loved one. If you are like everyone else, then there is a high chance that you have kept your private keys to yourself and you don’t have a plan on what happens when you die.
If you have a will, then it is prudent that you include this information in the will. However, now that many adults don’t bother about the will, a lot of bitcoin will end up being buried with their owners.
To keep your coins alive, you have a few things that you can do. One, you can keep the private keys in a safety box and organize for the beneficiaries to get a key when you die. You can also talk to your estate attorney to set up a smart contract for you so that the coins are released to your family.
It remains upon you to choose what happens to the coins after death – you can even pass them to a charity of your choice.

If you would pass away this week, will your digital assets get to your beneficiaries? Will they have your PayPal passwords, and will they even know how much you held in bitcoin?
The internet won’t realize that you died, and the accounts that you have will stay active for many years to come. Your family will try to piece together the loose ends of your life including the online accounts, but without the passwords to these accounts, it will be an impossible task.
Some companies have put down a process of getting information that you need when a loved one passes away. Your family needs to provide a formal letter telling Yahoo to give them access to the account, a copy of a document that appoints the individual as a beneficiary and a copy of the death certificate. This takes time, and most times it doesn’t get approved because fraud is on the rise.
Another hurdle that the family has to deal with is knowing the number of accounts you have online. They might make wild guesses depending on the history you have on your browsers, but this might also get deleted after some time. It is prudent that you have a list written somewhere so that they don’t miss out on managing an account when you are gone.

When your family is trying to hunt down your accounts and struggling to guess your passwords, your account is prone to cyber-attacks.
Your family doesn’t have the tools or capability to get the passwords, but hackers will do this easily. Combined with poor password practices, hackers can easily access the account of the deceased before the family gets there.
Once a hacker gains access to one account, it is easy to gain access to another one because many people have one unique password for all their online accounts. And even when the service provider alerts the account owner, and there is no one to read this alert, your family won’t know that the account has been hacked.

It is prudent that you prepare for the unexpected when it comes to your digital assets. This starts with having your data stored somewhere that your family will get access to when anything happens to you. Consult your estate planning attorney for advice on this task.