Wills Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Law Offices of Daniel Timins

Wills Only Deal With a Deceased Person’s Money

Posted on May 13, 2015

The title of this blog seems clear: A will only deals with a deceased person’s money. But what exactly does this mean? Is a retirement plan such as an IRA a deceased person’s money? How about a life insurance policy owned by the deceased individual? The term “estate” means many things, though the term essentially means “property”. Real estate is often referred to as real property by attorneys. The “gross estate” means all property owned by the deceased person for taxation purposes, meaning everything they have control over (including life insurance, some joint property, and retirement plans). However, the “Probate Estate” is only property that passes through probate. Probate proceedings do not distribute funds paid outside of probate. Life insurance

PROBATE: Be Nice to the Court Clerk!

Posted on March 26, 2015

When a person passes away, New York requires the Will and other paperwork be filed with a law clerk, in the Surrogate’s Court in the County in which the Probate Proceeding will be held. And while the Surrogate’s Court Procedures Act explains how such legal matters are supposed to proceed, each county is somewhat different as to how these requirements should be met. While these differences may frustrate an attorney unfamiliar with a certain county’s requirements, it tends to drive “Pro Se” participants (I.e. the “Do It Yourselfers” who are not attorneys) to the brink of insanity. And when people act irrationally, the administering clerk will likely transform from helpful to defensive. I was in one of these courts today

Testamentary Trusts: The Good and the Bad

Posted on December 9, 2014

A testamentary trust is not applicable until (1) you pass away, (2) your will is successfully admitted to probate, and (3) the trustee establishes a trust account with funds delivered by the will’s executor. But what kind of property should you have distributed via these trusts? The advice of many estate planning attorneys is to transfer as little as possible by will: Probate requires: a good deal of paperwork notice to a potentially large number of familial and beneficial parties, a court clerk approval of submission of the will, the court’s over-all approval, etc. Probate also has a sliding scale for court filing fees, is a public affair, and takes a good deal of time to administer. Meanwhile, transferring property