Category: General Life

  Medical aid in dying is the process by which an adult, mentally competent, terminally ill patient, whose doctors have determined likely to die within six months, self-consumes prescribed medicines to end suffering and achieve a peaceful death. There are currently legislative efforts in New York State to establish Medical Aid in Dying as...

  In New York, banks will seal a safe deposit box following the death of an owner or co-owner. The bank will then only allow the safe deposit box to be opened after a Court issues an order to that effect. The following are the steps you must take:

  After an Executor gets appointed in an Estate, the Executor must fulfill his duties by timely marshalling of all assets, paying all known creditors and distributing the remaining money to beneficiaries. While this is what is supposed to happen, quite often it does not.  

Probate or Administration: In New York, if the decedent had a Will and had assets that did not pass by operation of law (such as joint property with rights of survivorship or accounts with beneficiary designations), then the Will must be "probated" and an Executor must be appointed. If the decedent did not have...

  Essential components of every estate plan, regardless of client's net worth, include a Will, a Power of Attorney, and a Health Care Proxy. Some circumstances require the use of a Trust (for the purposes of special needs planning, asset protection, Medicaid/elder care planning, estate tax mitigation, and probate avoidance). Those with potentially taxable...

  You must be very careful to store your Will properly, otherwise, if it cannot be found, the court is likely to consider it revoked and your assets will be distributed in accordance with intestacy rules.   In recent case In Re Scollan (2018), in which a...

Medical marijuana may help with a variety of age-related illnesses, including  arthritis, insomnia, and pain. Yet in New York, for now, only people with very specific illnesses are permitted to buy medical marijuana.Read more here

The idea of doctor-assisted suicide has been growing in popularity in recent years. Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland have legalized voluntary euthanasia.  Australia, France, South Africa and United Kingdom are considering similar measures. In the United States, five states have legalized physician assisted suicide via legislation (California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and Washington)...

Talking about end of life issues with a loved one who is already sick is difficult. Your loved one may not be thinking clearly, may be in pain, and everyone is likely to be very emotional. That’s why it’s important to have this conversation early, while everyone is thinking clearly. A plan is...

Clients often establish Trusts for the purpose of deferring distributions to beneficiaries. These Trusts are usually established to protect assets from risks such as mismanagement, imprudent spending, creditors and divorce.But when do Trust beneficiaries have to receive information about the Trust and the assets? This question is different from the one about when...