As a NY estate lawyer with more than two decades of NY estate law experience I have lived through multiple financial cycles.  Each cycle, usually lasting a decade brought about plenty of good prosperity accompanied by financial expansion, a few bad recessions with periods of job loss and even some really ugly times as well.  However through each cycle, whether it was the dot com bubble in 2000 which brought about several years of economic stagnation or the housing bubble in 2009 which kicked off the great recession, no period in our nation’s recent history ever included a biological pandemic like the one we face today.  I say recent history because in 1918 our economy endured a similar pandemic to the one we face now known as the Spanish Flu.  The 1918 flu killed off nearly 10% of the world’s population, 40 million people globally, the equivalent of half a billion people today.  

Naturally, the 1918 Spanish Flu was a horrific epidemic resulting in the catastrophic loss of life compounded by one of the worst global economic contractions in human history.  The 1918 pandemic lasted eighteen months before the world would recover.  However, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was also followed by one of the greatest economic expansions in our world’s history sparking off the incredible bull market endearingly known as the roaring 1920s.  Most importantly it’s times like these where you have to keep a rational head looking through the perspective of time to avoid fear of the uncertainty.   

If history is any teacher the one thing we can all count on is more of the same.  As a NY estate lawyer I cannot tell you when our current pandemic will end or how.  What I can tell you as a NY estate lawyer is that history shows us that we as Americans are pretty resilient and will eventually recover.  Personally my advice regarding NY estate planning has not changed.  Having a NY will is still the best and most important step you can take to protect your NY estate  and we should all have one.  Additionally, from the perspective of history, antiquity also teaches us that the average recession only lasts approximately 18 months.  As I write this, courts in the State of New York are more or less closed, schools are shut down and there is a State of Emergency for 100 million Americans.  It is important for me to also remind you as a NY estate lawyer that eventually schools and courts will all reopen, the state of emergency across the nation will end and life will go on.    

If you think you or a family member may need help drafting or updating their NY will it never hurts to speak with an experienced NY estate lawyer.  Feel free to call the NY estate lawyers at The Law Offices of Jason W. Stern & Associates for a free consultation at (718) 261-2444. Our NYC estate lawyers have more than 60 years of combined NY estate law experience drafting and probating the wills for families like yours in the counties of Queens, New York, Kings, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, Orange, Dutchess as well as in the State of New Jersey.