A client recently sat in my office, convinced a simple will was all he needed. He owned his Brooklyn brownstone outright, had a straightforward investment
A client sits in my Manhattan office. “Russel,” he says, “I want to set up a trust fund for my grandchildren.” It’s a phrase I
When a Brooklyn widow learns her husband passed away without a will, she almost always assumes the family home and bank accounts will seamlessly transfer
The phone rings. It’s a collection agency asking for your recently deceased father, calling about an overdue credit card balance from a Manhattan department store.
A couple in their late thirties buys their first apartment in Brooklyn. Between their 401(k)s, the equity in their new home, and some vested stock
A client once came to my office with his late father’s will, believing it was the key to settling the estate. He was shocked to
I often meet with families in the days after a loss, and they come to my office with a common, frustrating problem. The original Will
When a Manhattan family with two commercial properties and an $8 million brokerage account sits down to review their estate, the conversation often begins with
I once met with the adult children of a successful Manhattan entrepreneur. Their father had built a significant commercial real estate portfolio over thirty years,
A client recently came into our Madison Avenue office with a question I’m hearing more often. He had seen an advertisement for a service that
A client recently described sitting in her late father’s study in his Manhattan apartment, surrounded by a lifetime of paperwork. She had been named the
I often meet families for the first time in a moment of crisis. A parent has passed away in their Manhattan apartment, and the adult
A father in Brooklyn suffers a mild stroke and needs his eldest daughter to handle a few immediate banking tasks while he recovers. They download
Introduction As we age, planning for our future becomes increasingly important, especially regarding healthcare and financial security. Medicaid planning is a vital aspect of estate
A few months ago, a client came into my Manhattan office with a stack of papers and a deep sense of frustration. His father had
A client once came into my Manhattan office with a document they’d downloaded from the internet. It was a template for a revocable living trust,
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 family in Brooklyn gets the call they’ve been waiting for. After months of litigation following a construction site accident, a settlement has been reached.
When a Manhattan family loses a parent who relied entirely on a simple will, the next nine to eighteen months belong to Surrogate’s Court. The
An executor for a Manhattan estate calls my office. She is trying to marshal assets and pay the estate’s final bills, but the decedent’s estranged
I once worked with the children of a man who built a beloved restaurant group in Brooklyn. He was brilliant in the kitchen and the
An executor for a family estate in Queens recently called me. He was holding his father’s will and a stack of bank statements totaling just
A new client, a tech executive from Manhattan, recently sat in my office with a freshly signed revocable living trust. He was proud of the
When a family in Brooklyn loses a parent who owned a brownstone purchased in 1982 for $90,000, the immediate fear is almost always the tax
When a Brooklyn family loses a parent, the surviving spouse often assumes they automatically inherit the family home. They continue paying the mortgage, keeping up
A client sat in my office last week and asked a question I hear almost every day. “Russel, just give me a number. What does
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.
I recently met with a business owner from Manhattan. She has built a successful company over 30 years and wants to ensure it passes to
A client came to my office with a shoebox. Inside was a tangle of papers—a will from 1998, old bank statements, a car title, and
A client recently came to my office with a citation from the Kings County Surrogate’s Court. His sister, the nominated executor of their mother’s will,
