Recent Blog Posts
Trimming Unnecessary Expenses for an Affordable Retirement
Personal finance advice tends to be directed at people younger than you. It gestures toward a goal of having money left over at the end of each pay period, so that you can save it for the future, and eventually afford to retire. Most of it is aspirational; the financial freedom it inspires you… Read More »
Beware of Strawman Beneficiaries of Your Estate Plan
Everyone has that one relative who loves to give holiday gifts, but every time you receive a gift from her, you realize how little she knows you, how little attention she has paid to anything you have ever said in her presence. Perhaps it is an elderly aunt or a step-grandmother. She gives you… Read More »
Celebrate the Annual Gift Tax Exclusion This Holiday Season
Gratitude has a lot more to do with how rich or how poor you feel than your bank account balance does. Almost everyone lives paycheck to paycheck these days, and some of them let the financial stress color their perspectives on everything, while others celebrate the non-financial things that are going on in their… Read More »
Don’t Trust Chatbots With Your Estate Plan
It is a scary thought that today’s kindergarteners have never known a world without large language models that could generate volumes of natural sounding text through generative artificial intelligence (AI). The implications of this are scary enough to take your mind off of your own mortality. You might even feel tempted to start working… Read More »
3 Kinds of Testators the Probate Court Cannot Stand
If you are an incorrigible people pleaser, then death at least relieves you of the dread of seeing other people’s reactions to your mistakes and shortcomings. Despite this, even people who ostensibly do not care at all about what other people think about them sometimes put great effort into their estate plans. They do… Read More »
Who Is the Ideal Beneficiary of a Trust?
Despite what the AI summaries that appear above the organic search results might tell you, not everyone needs a trust. The deciding factor is not how wealthy you are. If you are wealthy, but you accept that tax laws apply to you, too, then there is no need to establish a trust; you can… Read More »
Backyard Chickens and Your Estate Plan: Not Just Pets, but Not a White Elephant, Either
The stereotypical hobbies of retirees tend to involve more attention to the natural world than most working people can afford. When you have a 9-to-5 job, there simply are not enough hours in the day to devote to gardening or birdwatching, unless you decide to forgo sleep and pursue the nocturnal versions of these… Read More »
Does New York Have Pre-Mortem Probate?
The surviving relatives of a deceased person often find the thought comforting that their late family member can still see them and offer encouragement. For the other perspective, though, the scenario is horrifying. Imagine being able to see the probate proceedings for your estate from beyond the grave. You might see a mean-spirited side… Read More »
The Role of the Public Administrator in New York Probate Cases
The signs of our society’s loneliness epidemic. People look to Chat GPT for advice and even companionship, when they used to call their mothers for the former and text their friends for the latter. For every person who goes out on a limb to let small talk turn into big talk and to delight… Read More »
A Family Trust Can Prevent Conflict and Keep Order, but Only If You Let It
You often feel that you are the only thing that keeps your whole family from descending into chaos, even though it is not possible to test your hypothesis while you are alive. You bankroll your entire family, and to show their gratitude, they attend family gatherings only when they feel like it and occasionally… Read More »