The Options Available To Avoid Probate Proceedings In New York
The best way to avoid probate and the time delay associated with it and the costs and the possible litigation is to basically have a living trust drafted and funded. It is the best way. Sometimes there are other ways that you could avoid probate for certain assets but not all, but that could run into some major problems because they are usually taking place without the assistance of a lawyer meaning that people are just naming beneficiaries on accounts and not fully understanding what they are doing or what results will happen at death . For example, if an individual has a bank account and, they have multiple children or they wanted to leave some of their money to their grandkids, someone else or in different proportions or any combination of those, that will be a problem because bank forms will not provide for that.
This is the case because when these accounts are set up at banks, for example, the bank person setting up the account is not an estate planning lawyer and will not be able to explain to you estate planning advice, they are just filling out a form and they really do not care what happens to your money after you die. They are more interested in making sure that they get the account opened and they get your money in their account. Unfortunately, when that is going on, people may end up ultimately disinheriting certain people that they really did not want to disinherit and they are not doing it intentionally. It is just that they just do not know any better because when banks fill out the forms, the client most times will not understand how it affects their whole entire estate.
Obviously, these people in financial institutions are not there to give them estate planning advice, they are not an estate planning lawyer that is not their job. And generally what happens a lot of times as I said before and not always purposely, people are disinherited; and many times people do not even realize how it is going to affect their estate or their estate plan.
The best way to avoid these problems, obviously, is to come in and speak to the well versed and experienced NY estate planning lawyer at the Law Offices of Michael Camporeale and set up the proper trust and get the proper advice so that ultimately your estate is properly distributed pursuant to your wishes. So that you are not leaving up to chance. Most clients are very surprised to hear about what would happen to their estate if they became ill and needed to go into a nursing home or what would happen to their estate if they passed away and or how they did not even realize that things they did before they came into my office were going to have an effect on how their estate was going to be lost before their death or distributed after they died had they not come into my office and did the proper planning.
An estate planning lawyer will take care of all the paperwork for you and the attorney will also assist you in drafting and implementing all the paperwork needed, including wills and trusts. Estate law is closely connected to family law and the estate planning attorney will help and guide you in choosing the correct options needed to maintain your estate after death. As you will need the services of an estate planning lawyer, you will also need the services of an elder law lawyer as well as a Medicaid planning lawyer.
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The key is really to get the proper advice and go over everything and do the proper NY estate planning to make sure that your estate is properly protected and distributed. But more importantly, on the elder law side, you really want to be able to protect your assets including your home, and when I say protect them, protect them from the nursing home, so that if, an individual becomes ill and needs nursing home care, then those assets are not wasted or spent on the catastrophic cost of a nursing home, which on average now in the City of New York is in excess of $100,000 a year.
If you do not do the proper planning you will have to use your private assets to pay for your care, therefore, you might not even have any inheritance left to pass on to your estate. That is why you need to be proactive and do the proper estate planning now so that you don’t let that happen to your estate and a lifetime of your work that was used to accumulate that estate.
That is where proper planning, becomes even more important and that proper planning really needs to be done by an NY elder law attorney who understands Medicaid and asset protection techniques and the lawyers at the Law Offices of Michael Camporeale are the right lawyers as opposed to just the general “estate planning attorney” who knows how to handle death issues and could advise you on what happens at death, but has no idea how Medicaid works or what will happen if you become ill, which is a very big problem that I see in my practice every day, because those estate planning lawyers that are not versed in elder law and Medicaid law are doing a disservice to the public. When the public goes to see them, if they do not necessarily, “they” meaning the public, do not open the door and ask the estate planning lawyer those questions as to, “What happens if I get sick or I need to go into a nursing home and how does Medicaid work?” Bad things happen.
They might not ask those questions, and may not be thinking about those issues, because, they are in good health, even if they are older in life, they may not even be thinking about those issues and if the general practitioner or estate planning lawyer does not ask that question, that door never gets opened. The general lawyer or estate planning lawyer probably would not ask those questions, because if he is not versed in Medicaid law and protecting assets from the nursing home because he is not an elder law attorney, he is not going to open that door himself, so what ends up happening is both parties go on their way, the attorney will get a client, the client will leave with an estate plan that will address death issues, but does not leave with the more important asset protection plan if that person needs long term care later, and that is a big danger and I see it very often, when later in that person’s life they become ill and need that nursing home care, it is their children that are know in my office and not in that prior lawyers office that did not plan for that scenario. And now the children a horrified at the reality that mom or dads assets including their home will have to be spent on their long term care needs at over $100,000 a year and that they will never get any inheritance.
I am in surrogate court quite often and I could be in the surrogate court with many lawyers, on any given day on a calendar call and a good, or, great majority of them are dealing with death issues because they are estate lawyers, but a lot of them or a very large portion of them do not understand Medicaid and how it works. Most will not even know what to do or how to deal with it, but at the same time, they are the same practitioners that are out there meeting with clients and preparing wills and planning estates, and telling people what is going to happen to them at death but not explaining to them what will happen if they become ill and need long term care. They are not telling them, because they are not elder law attorneys and are not experienced in Medicaid Law and don’t know how to plan for that scenario.
Those are the same lawyers that I indicated that I would be seeing in the surrogate court dealing with post-death issues, whereas myself, I am in that court as well and I know how to handle all the post-death issues, however, more importantly, I also know how to handle the Medicaid planning and asset protection issues involved in an estate plan. That estate plan could, with the use of a proper trust, for instance, the Medicaid asset protection trust, accomplishes two major goals, which is (a), protecting the assets in the event that an individual does become ill and needs nursing home care, which is really by far the most important issue and (b), it is a way to avoid probate so that at death, after the assets are protected, they can be passed on without the need, time delay and expense of probate, which is something that a proper elder law and Medicaid asset protection estate planning lawyer like myself can accomplish.
Save yourself from all the hefty bills of a nursing home and the high costs associated with it. Let our elder law attorneys and estate planning lawyers help you make your estate plan, Medicare plan and a plan that will help you when you grow old.
For more information on Avoiding Probate In New York, 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
