After finalizing a complex generational trust for a client, he leaned back in his chair in our Manhattan office and asked a question I don’t
A client sat in my Manhattan office last week, holding a page of notes. “Russel,” he said, “I’ve read about living trusts and revocable trusts
A Queens family finds their mother’s will tucked away in a safe deposit box. They assume their next step is a long, drawn-out court process.
A few years ago, a woman came to our Manhattan office distraught. Her husband of nearly 40 years had passed away, and his will—drafted long
A client recently called me from her late father’s home in Brooklyn. She was the executor of his will, and while sorting through his belongings,
A client once came into my office with a will he’d drafted himself. He was proud of its detail, especially the clause leaving a specific
Parents often ask me how they can treat their children fairly when their needs are so different. One child is heading to college, another is
When a Manhattan business owner dies unexpectedly without a succession plan, the fallout is immediate. Bank accounts freeze. Payroll halts. Surviving family members, already grieving,
When a family in Nassau County loses a parent who only had a will, the next nine to twelve months of their lives often belong
When a Brooklyn family loses a parent, the first few weeks are a blur of floral deliveries, quiet conversations in the living room, and a
When a Brooklyn family loses a parent, the eldest sibling often steps up to act as executor out of a sense of obligation. They anticipate
When a Manhattan family discovers their father’s bargain-bin will requires them to spend the next eighteen months in Surrogate’s Court, the conversation about legal fees
A client in Manhattan recently sat in my office with a common, but significant, problem. He had spent decades building a sizable Roth IRA, and
A client recently came into my office with his mother’s will, a document drafted in the early 2000s. Stapled to the back was a separate,
A client from Queens recently came into my office, looking overwhelmed. His father had just passed away, and on the kitchen table was a stack
A client once came to my office after her husband, a successful Brooklyn restaurant owner, died suddenly. He was in his early fifties and had
When paramedics rush into a Manhattan apartment for a patient in cardiac arrest, a family’s desperate plea to “let him go peacefully” carries zero legal
A client called me last week. He and his wife had just made the final payment on the mortgage for their Brooklyn brownstone—a home they’d
When a Brooklyn couple marries five years after one partner purchased a brownstone, the property title usually remains in the original buyer’s name. For a
I recently sat with a client who wanted to name her two adult children as co-executors of her will. It’s a common request, and the
When a couple I met from Huntington passed away within a few years of each other, their children discovered the only planning their parents had
A couple I worked with years ago owned a home in Nassau County that had been in their family since the 1950s. They also had
When a family uncovers a parent’s will in a Brooklyn safe deposit box, the initial relief is usually short-lived. A will is not a bypass
When a Manhattan family discovers their father died without a trust, their first question to our firm is rarely about the legal mechanics of probate.
A family recently sat across from me in our Manhattan office, exhausted by the sudden passing of their father. They needed to settle his estate,
A client came to me last year, a successful entrepreneur with a growing business in Manhattan. His will was in order, but he was worried.
A few years ago, we worked with the family of a man severely injured in a construction site fall. After a long fight, he received
A client once described his father’s will as “simple”—everything was to be split equally between the children. What wasn’t simple was the year his family
When a Brooklyn family discovers their late father’s will in a safety deposit box, the relief is brief. They assume possessing the original document—complete with
We received a call last month from a woman in Queens. Her estranged father had passed away at a city hospital with a few hundred
