Health Law

• Medicaid Planning
  Medicaid planning is a legal and financial strategy used to protect assets and plan for long-term care expenses while still qualifying for Medicaid benefits. Medicaid is a government-funded healthcare program that provides coverage for medical expenses for individuals with low income or limited financial resources. Medicaid planning is particularly relevant for elderly or disabled individuals who may require long-term care in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Estate planning with proven techniques is an important process that will provide peace of mind and help ensure that your wishes are carried out after your death.
• Wills
  Probate is court supervised administration of your financial affairs after your death. It involves hiring an attorney to petition the court for authority for the executor to act on your behalf, according to a Last Will and Testament, if you have made one, or according to New York’s Intestate Succession Laws if you have not. The proceeding requires the family member or friend petitioning the court to prove they are worthy of handling your affairs because they are close enough in relation to you, competent to handle financial and legal affairs, not suffering from any mental defect or addictions that might cause them to steal from your estate, and have not been convicted of a felony. Furthermore, the person who wants to handle your estate needs to formally notify your closest blood relatives (defined as “distributees” which differs based on who survives after you die) of the court proceeding. If those relatives do not consent, the person attempting to handle your affairs must then get a citation from the court and serve it on the person who does not consent, requiring them (and your attorney) to appear in court to state their objections to the estate administration going forward, which will dramatically slow down the handling of your affairs.
• Trusts
  A trust can be established under a Will, called a “Testamentary Trust,” which is still subject to probate and court supervision. Trusts established for beneficiaries are typically done because a beneficiary is under a certain age and it would not be appropriate for him or her to inherit large sums of money, (Trusts for Minors), to protect against the creditors of a beneficiary (a “Spend Thrift Trust”), or because a person may have a disability (a “Special Needs Trust”). Creditors are a broad legal group of people that include divorced spouses, people who secure a judgement against a beneficiary because of an accident (judgement creditors), or financial creditors (lenders) if your beneficiary is involved in business enterprises that may have large financial or physical risks.
• Power of Attorney
  A durable power of attorney is “durable” because it remains in effect even if the principal becomes incapacitated or unable to make decisions for themselves. This is different from a regular power of attorney, which becomes invalid if the principal becomes incapacitated.
• Probate

Finance Law

• Tax Law
  It’s important to note that both the estate tax and the inheritance tax only apply to a small percentage of estates and are designed to target the wealthiest individuals in society. The vast majority of people do not have to worry about paying these taxes, as their estates fall below the threshold for taxation. If your family is not subject to estate taxes, this opens up other valuable tax planning opportunities, most notably the “step-up in cost basis,” the adjustment of capital gains taxable basis to the date of death value of an asset when its owner dies. For families below the estate tax exemptions, this can result in the savings for the beneficiaries of tens of thousands of dollars in capital gains tax when they later  sell inherited assets.