A will is designed to ensure your assets, such as money, personal items and real estate, are distributed upon your death.
An experienced attorney will understand the laws governing New York wills and trusts, to ensure your will complies with legal standards while reflecting your wishes accurately. Furthermore, they can discuss options to reduce estate taxes.
Legal Advice
While online resources may help you draft your will on your own, an experienced estate lawyer can offer valuable guidance to ensure the testamentary documents meet state requirements and stand up in court. They specialize in creating estate plans, assigning legal guardians for children, distributing assets between family members, filing will challenges against others and even filing legal defenders against challenges to wills.
Your will is also an opportunity for you to select an executor to carry out your wishes after death and protect your assets from excessive taxes, lawsuits and other challenges. Your attorney can advise on strategies for minimizing tax liabilities as well as strategies for safeguarding your estate – such as creating a revocable living trust – to minimize tax liabilities.
An experienced New York estate planning lawyer can help you select the appropriate trustee and beneficiaries, avoid costly heir disputes and speed up probate proceedings. They may also explain other estate planning tools like trusts and powers of attorney.
Drafting the Document
Your attorney will use your wishes and information provided to draft a will, outlining how you’d like your assets and property distributed after death, nominating guardians for minor children, selecting an executor and listing any specific bequests you would like to make or any tax-related provisions that may apply.
Your New York estate planning lawyer can assist in including specifics about your situation into your will and other testamentary documents that meet your needs, helping your estate avoid probate proceedings and reduce disputes among its beneficiaries.
As part of an overall estate plan, it’s advisable to review your will regularly – whether every few years or after any significant event in life such as marriage, remarriage, divorce, having children, purchasing or selling property, etc. Your attorney can amend it either by creating a new will which replaces your previous one or by including a codicil – the former option being more effective if there are numerous changes needed or you need to alter any specifics cited within it.
Signing the Document
Wills can address many estate-planning needs. They include assigning guardians for minor children, assigning legal beneficiaries for property and financial assets, and designating an executor to administer your estate. But for any will to have any impact, it must first be properly executed.
A valid will must be in writing and signed by its creator (the testator) before it can become legal. Furthermore, at least two independent witnesses who don’t benefit from the will should witness its signing; otherwise a testator can make an X mark or mark their name with another symbol easily identifiable by witnesses.
As your circumstances evolve, so should your will. This could include getting married, remarried, divorced; having or adopting children; buying or selling property; or getting divorced. A New York attorney knowledgeable in wills drafting can assist in making necessary updates to your estate plan when necessary.
Modifying the Document
Wills give you control over who receives your property upon your death, helping avoid disputes over what would have been your preferred arrangement and speeding up probate processes. Should you need assistance revising or revoking it, a New York estate planning lawyer is always there for help.
Modifying an existing will can be achieved in various ways, including codicils. Codicils are amendments made directly to an original document that must meet all requirements and restrictions set by its original will; however, sometimes it is quicker and easier to draft an entirely new will instead.
Common reasons to modify a will include getting married or divorced, having children, moving states or purchasing or selling real estate. Reviewing your estate plan periodically – especially as life circumstances shift – will also ensure your will reflects your current wishes and is more likely to stand up in court rather than have your assets delayed or diminished over time. Handwritten changes could even be challenged in court which could decrease assets you leave for loved ones in your will.
