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Two Essential Legal Documents for College Students and Other Young Adults
As a legal adult, no other person, including your parents, can make health care decisions or manage money for you without the right legal documents in place.
Under Article 19 of the New York Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act, real property vests in the decedent’s heirs or legatees immediately as owners date of death. So why would someone have to go through probate to take title or sell it?
New York State has an estate tax “cliff”, which means that if an estate exceeds 105% of the New York estate tax exemption then the estate will receive absolutely no exemption from New York estate taxes and the entire value of the estate is subject to New York’s estate tax.
Whether a bank account must go through probate depends on how the account was held – jointly or in the decedent’s sole name. Like real property, bank accounts can be owned in many ways.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) increased the federal estate tax exclusion amount for decedents dying in years 2018 to 2025. The exclusion amount for 2021 is $11.7 million. This means that an individual can leave $11.7 million and a married couple can leave $23.4 million dollars to their heirs or beneficiaries without paying any federal estate tax.
As fiduciary you are required to account to the beneficiaries, but the type of accounting will vary depending upon the actual beneficiaries and the fiduciary’s relationship with them. There are two types of accounting: informal and judicial accounting.
While the best elder law and estate plan is to have a valid health care proxy naming agents and a valid durable power of attorney naming an agent to make financial decisions, not everyone has done the proper planning. It is not uncommon for an elderly person to fall ill, be hospitalized and then need nursing home care with no time to plan.
Question: Who would inherit from an estate if someone dies without a will?
Question: My aunt recently passed away and I just found out that I was named executor of her Will. I really do not want to serve. Is renunciation an option; can I decline or resign from being executor?
When someone in New York State dies with a small amount of money, the family may be able to avoid probate by using a “1310”, or small estate affidavit. This affidavit may be used by certain family members or the decedent’s creditors to collect assets up to a certain value in the decedent’s sole name.
