A few years ago, a new client sat in my Manhattan office, distraught. His father had recently passed away, and the will was perfectly clear—my
A couple I know from Manhattan were on a flight to London when their seven-year-old daughter, back home with a sitter, had an acute appendicitis
The call I get most often starts the same way. A client from Manhattan or one of the boroughs calls, their voice strained. “My mother
When a Brooklyn father passes away, leaving behind a second wife who insists on cremation and adult children from a first marriage demanding a traditional
A client recently came to our Manhattan office with a difficult family problem. Her father had passed away, and his will named her brother as
A week after his wife’s funeral, a client sat in his Manhattan apartment surrounded by flowers and sympathy cards. The words on the cards were
A client came to our Manhattan office last month with a simple request. Her son had just had a baby, her first grandchild, and she
I once worked with the family of a successful Manhattan real estate developer who died suddenly. He had two adult children from his first marriage,
The call usually comes a few weeks after the funeral. A son in Brooklyn discovers his mother’s will was changed in the final months of
A client recently came to our Manhattan office after her father passed away. As the newly appointed successor trustee, she went to his bank to
An elderly mother in Brooklyn, a widow for ten years, suddenly starts making large, uncharacteristic withdrawals from her savings. A brother in Manhattan suffers a
A client once came to my Manhattan office convinced he’d made the perfect choice for his children’s trustee. “My sister,” he said. “She’s family, she
When a Manhattan executive suffers a severe stroke at age fifty-eight, his family faces an immediate crisis that has nothing to do with medicine. The
An executor in Manhattan finds his mother’s original will. The document seems clear, the family is on good terms, and the assets—a co-op and a
I often meet new clients after a crisis. A business partner in Manhattan passes away with only a simple will, leaving the surviving partner and
After a client passes, their spouse often brings a box of papers to our first meeting at my Manhattan office. Tucked inside, among the deeds
I’ve seen it happen more than once. A brilliant founder builds a company from the ground up in a Brooklyn loft, pouring years of their
I once had a client, a newly appointed executor, call me the morning of a funeral. We had spent weeks reviewing the estate’s legal and
I recently met with a family from Queens whose father had just been diagnosed with a condition that would soon require skilled nursing care. They
A client recently came to my office with a thick folder and a sense of exhaustion. His father, a lifelong Brooklyn resident, had passed away,
A beneficiary in Queens calls the executor for the third time in a month. The question is always the same: “When am I getting my
The call comes from a hospital in Manhattan. Your uncle, who lived on the Upper West Side for fifty years, has passed away. You’re the
When a Brooklyn family loses a parent who never wrote a will, the surviving spouse often assumes the house and bank accounts will naturally transfer
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
A family in Brooklyn receives a stack of official-looking documents from the Surrogate’s Court. They always assumed that when their father passed, his will would
A couple from Brooklyn sat in my office a few years ago. They had what many people call “I love you” wills—simple documents that left
When a Brooklyn family receives a midnight phone call that a parent has died out of state, the next forty-eight hours are entirely consumed by
A retired architect in Brooklyn transfers his paid-off brownstone and two brokerage accounts into a standard revocable living trust. He assumes his life’s work is
When a young couple in Manhattan perishes in an accident leaving behind minor children and no will, the next decade of those children’s lives belongs
A client came to my office last month with a straightforward goal. A lifelong Manhattan resident, she wanted to name her brother—who retired to Florida—as
