A client once came to me after building a successful business in Manhattan. He had arrived in the U.S. decades ago, built his company from
I often sit with clients in our Manhattan office who are about to name a trustee. They’ll say, “My brother is great with people, I’ll
When a family in Queens loses a parent, the immediate focus is rarely on the driveway. Weeks later, an adult child inevitably finds the title
Three siblings inherit their parents’ Brooklyn brownstone. Two, living out of state, want to sell it and use their inheritance to fund their own children’s
I’ve sat in the Kings County Surrogate’s Court and watched a family’s hopes dissolve. They presented a handwritten letter, signed by their late father, laying
A client recently called me from his late mother’s apartment in Brooklyn. While sorting through stacks of mail, he found a credit card statement. The
Two siblings inherit a Brooklyn brownstone. After a few months of managing the property together, one agrees to buy the other out. They assume the
Every few years, an executive sits across the desk in our Madison Avenue office and asks a variation of the same question. Usually, it starts
A family in Brooklyn inherits a brownstone. Their father left a clear, well-written will, and they assume the transfer will be straightforward. They are surprised
A client recently sat across my desk in our Madison Avenue office, reviewing a will we drafted for him back in 2014. When we reached
For seventeen years, a parent makes every critical decision for their child with special needs—from medical treatments to educational plans. Then, on the child’s eighteenth
You’ve been asked to serve as the trustee for a family friend’s trust in Manhattan. You’re honored, but as the initial warmth of the request
A client recently told me about his sister, named the executor of their mother’s estate in Brooklyn. In the midst of her grief, she was
A brownstone in Park Slope, a family business in Williamsburg, savings built over a lifetime. Without a deliberate plan, what happens to it all when
A family in Brooklyn receives a bill from the Kings County Surrogate’s Court for a few hundred dollars to file a probate petition. The executor
A son from Queens called me last week. His mother had a fall, and while she was recovering, he needed to pay her bills—the mortgage,
When a Brooklyn family loses a parent whose only estate planning document was a will, the next nine to fourteen months belong to Surrogate’s Court.
A client from Brooklyn sat in my office last month, determined to give her brownstone to her son. “I want to make it simple,” she
Imagine an executor unlocking the door to a Manhattan co-op that has not been updated since 1982. The closets are bursting with vintage clothing, the
I once worked with the children of a successful Manhattan real estate developer who passed away with only a simple will. He left his entire
I recently sat with a young couple from Brooklyn in our Manhattan office. They were starting their first estate plan, and their primary concern was
A client recently sat in my Manhattan office, wrestling with a question that preoccupies many New Yorkers. His family had owned their Brooklyn brownstone since
A client from Queens called my office last month. Her father had passed away, and she was holding a $15,000 bill from the funeral home.
A widower in Queens recently decided to protect his family home from future nursing home costs. Instead of sitting down with an attorney, he paid
You see a sign on a weekend drive through Long Island or in the lobby of a Manhattan co-op: “Estate Sale.” Inside is a lifetime’s
A client sat across from me last week, convinced he needed a “living trust” but concerned about the term “revocable.” It’s a question my firm
The first call we often get is not from someone planning ahead, but from the son or daughter left behind. They’re standing in their parent’s
An executor clearing out her father’s apartment on the Upper West Side finds a metal box in the back of a closet. Inside, beneath old
A client recently came into my office with a deed to his mother’s home in Brooklyn. He’d found it in a safe deposit box after
A client came to me last year, distressed. His father had passed away in the Queens home he’d lived in for fifty years, and the
