It’s said there are two unchanging certainties in our world, death and taxes. Ironically if we die with enough money our New York Estates may trigger the latter. New York is one of only a dozen states in our nation, not including the District of Columbia, that imposes a tax on estate assets. As of this writing, in 2025, the New York State estate tax exemption is $7,100,000.00 per individual. This is the amount of gross estate assets a resident of New York State can pass on free of any and all New York State estate tax liability.
Moreover, each year the New York State estate tax exemption increases to adjust for inflation, and will be $7,300,000.00 in 2026. Additionally, all estates in each of the fifty states are also subjected to the Federal Estate Tax. However, like the New York State Estate Tax, there are also exemption amounts at the Federal Level known as the unified credit.
In 2026, the Federal Estate Tax Exemption, or Unified Credit, will be $15 million dollars per individual and $30 million dollars for married couples. Unlike the New York State exemption, the Unified Credit includes portability of assets for married couples. Portability gives each partner any of their spouse’s unused portion of their tax exemption upon passing automatically, allowing for the transfer of up to $30 million dollars in New York estate assets per married couple.
As you can see from the Federal and New York State estate tax exemption amounts, less than 1 percent of all estates will trigger New York State estate tax issues. That is not say as a New York estate lawyer that I do not consider tax liability when drafting a New York will, because I do. That being said New York estate tax liability is rarer than people think. Occasionally, wealthy people do pass away unexpectedly and if their New York estate lawyer did not take the proper precautions the results can be catastrophic.
Estate of James Gandolfini
James Gandolfini was one of the most recognizable actors of our time, primarily known for his role as the tough and at times vulnerable New Jersey crime boss, Tony Soprano. Gandolfini’s career spanned three decades and included star studded films like True Romance to very serious action thrillers such as Crimson Tide. Gandolfini was an extremely versatile actor who also starred in several Broadway productions including Tennessee Williams’s Streetcar Named Desire.
Unfortunately, Gandolfini’s life ended prematurely on June 19, 2013, when he suffered a heart attack in Rome while visiting with his family. Gandolfini left behind his wife Debroah, son Michael, infant daughter Liliana and a New York estate in excess of $70 million dollars. Six months prior to the actor’s death, Gandolfini had his New York estate lawyer draft a will leaving 20% of his New York Estate to his wife Deborah, with the bulk of the remaining portion to be distributed equally to his two children. Regrettably, Gandolfini’s New York estate was well in excess of the $5,130,000.00 estate tax exemption in 2013 subjecting the actor’s entire New York Estate to both Federal and New York State estate tax liability. After his passing, Gandolfini’s Estate would have to sell off the bulk of the actor’s assets to satisfy the punitive $30 million estate tax bill.
As such, Gandolfini’s New York estate lawyer failed to shield his heirs from onerous estate tax liability by neglecting to leave his New York estate to his spouse Deborah. Had Gandolfini’s New York estate lawyer left the bulk of his NY estate to his spouse he could have deferred any and all NY and Federal estate tax liability to the time of her death, presumably sometime way in the distant future. This is called the spousal estate tax exemption, and is one of the tools New York Estate Lawyers utilize in shielding larger NY estates from tax liability. The spousal estate tax exemption, allows one married partner to transfer an unlimited amount of wealth to their surviving spouse outside any and all estate tax liability thereby deferring the tax liability until the second spouse’s passing.
In the end, while the sudden death of James Gandolfini was a tragedy, it was made even worse by the poor estate planning on the part of Gandolfini’s New York estate lawyer. If you are thinking about drafting a NY will it does not hurt to speak to 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 over 70 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 and Dutchess.