Reena Gulati Blog

In New York, a durable financial power of attorney and a springing financial power of attorney are two different types of legal documents that allow a person to appoint someone else to manage their financial affairs. While both documents can be useful in certain situations, they have some key differences that are important to understand.

A will and a trust are two of the most important documents a person can create to ensure their assets are distributed according to their wishes after death. In New York, these two documents have different rules and requirements. Knowing the differences between the two can help you make the best decision for your estate planning needs.

We're approaching the holiday season and the end of another year. If you're like most people, you probably have several goals to get off your to-do list before the new year. While you're putting in the effort to achieve your end-of-year objectives, how about you consider investing in your estate plan? Your estate plan protects the financial future of your family and loved ones when you're no longer here. As the year comes to an end, here are five things you should consider ticking off your estate planning checklist:

You and your spouse own all your property jointly. Your spouse passes away; you get everything by operation of law as the joint holder of the property. Except now you go to the bank to open the safe deposit box and you inform your banker of the unfortunate news and she/he tells you that you cannot access the safe deposit box. What? - You say. The banker explains that since the co-owner is deceased, the bank requires you to obtain authority from the court to allow you access from this point forward.rn

A living trust is simply a trust that an individual such as yourself will create while you are living. The person creating is usually called the grantor. It is normally set up to avoid probate. It gives the grantor a lot of flexibility as it can easily be amended. Therefore if the grantor wishes to make a change it can be done rather easily. Yet it passes the grantor’s property directly to the beneficiaries upon the occurrence of certain conditions stated in the trust and without the legal process of having to go to court and going through probate.