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Many of us view insurance as a necessary evil. The monthly premiums can be painful to see debited from your account. They can often total up into the thousands each year when you consider how many policies you have. You may have health, dental, auto, homeowner, life, long-term care, disability, and other policies to pay for. The benefits, however, can be substantial when you find yourself in need of them.

When you start a new job, your boss makes you fill out forms about your retirement account and any employer-provided life insurance. You write someone’s name in the “beneficiary” box, then forget about it. Years go by, and you do not think about revisiting those beneficiary selections. In that time, you might have opened other accounts that require the designation of a beneficiary.

Many people give little thought to the person or persons they name as beneficiaries of their accounts and insurance policies, and seldom, if ever, update those selections.
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For many parents, talking with their children about money is as stress-provoking as talking with them about the birds and the bees. The parents procrastinate, and many never get around to talking with their kids about how to manage their money. As estate planning lawyers, we see people who reach adulthood and do not have a clue about paying bills, budgeting, or keeping enough money in their bank account to cover their spending.
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Q: What are advanced directives and why they are important in a pandemic?

The global pandemic has caused a sense of urgency in people without a comprehensive estate plan. Many people know what a last will & testament is, even though less than one in three people have had one drawn up according to a study by Caring.com.

While it’s important to have a will drafted, Read more . . .

Q: Should I divide my estate equally among my children?

At one point or another during childhood – and even in adulthood – parents with multiple children have likely been accused of favoring one child over the other(s). While this kind of sibling rivalry is natural and generally harmless, how parents distribute an inheritance to their children can actually have serious consequences.

New York and New Jersey estate planning attorneys watch clients struggle with how to handle leaving an inheritance to multiple children.
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Lending money to a family member could be a beneficial thing, or it could harm your relationship with that person for many years. The odds are that the relationship will get damaged permanently. Some financial experts advise that you should only lend money to a relative if you are willing to sue that person. While that guidance might sound harsh, you should protect yourself from adverse tax consequences and losing the money forever.

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Q: Can an Executor pay beneficiaries whenever he or she wants?

When sitting down with a New York or New Jersey estate planning attorney to make a comprehensive estate plan, you’ll be deciding many important things that impact not only the end of your life and the financial future of your loved ones, but also what will happen to you if you become incapacitated by an illness, condition, or accident prior to your death.

Generally, you’ll execute a last will and testament and/or a trust to distribute assets in accordance with your wishes. You may do Medicaid planning to secure your assets in the event that you need long-term nursing home care at some point.
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Q: How do I plan for nursing home care?

New York and New Jersey elder law attorneys help the elderly and their adult children plan for how their golden years will be spent.

While most people hope to avoid ending up in a nursing home, that is not always possible. So Read more . . .

The cost of long-term care in the United States is steep and continues to climb year after year. There are few that can afford long term nursing home or assisted living care for very long and even fewer that can do so without having assets rapidly depleted down to nothing. Medicaid is a program administered on both the federal and state level that helps cover the cost of long-term care for individuals with limited income or financial resources. Many will look to Medicaid in later years to help cover the substantial costs of long-term care, but qualifying for these much-needed benefits can be difficult.

What is Medicaid Planning?

There are strict requirements for qualifying for critical Medicaid benefits.
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Q: Can tenants in New York City defer rent payments due to coronavirus layoffs?

The global pandemic surrounding the coronavirus (or COVID-19) is expected to deal a large blow to the economy as staggering numbers of Americans are losing their jobs and countless businesses are threatened by losses caused by the prolonged government lockdowns. Heavily-populated New York City -- as the epicenter of America’s COVID-19 cases--may be particularly hard-hit.

New York and New Jersey real estate attorneys who work with landlords and tenants are bracing for an anticipated uptick in litigation--especially over tenants falling behind in their rent-- if unemployment rates and the general economy don’t turn around quickly.
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Q: Can I make a will during the coronavirus pandemic?

No one likes to think about dying. That’s one of the popular reasons people postpone having their last will and testament drawn up, according to New York and New Jersey estate planning attorneys.

A global pandemic can change all that.
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