Protecting what matters most
A will is a testamentary instrument. It directs how, and to whom, the proceeds of an estate are distributed at death. In it you appoint the fiduciary who will handle your affairs, and you name the people who receive the estate.
Once you pass, an attorney-drafted and supervised will is admitted to probate and the executor named in it is appointed. Many people do not think they need a will in New York until it is too late.
A New York estate with no will is intestate. The proceeds pass through administration. That process is complex, frustrating, time-consuming, and costly. It often invites a feud among the heirs, each of them posturing to serve as administrator. The person who serves has to post a bond securing the estate assets, and that bond is often expensive.
If the will does not name the beneficiaries, the court distributes the estate to the next of kin, whether or not that person was intended. In New York, a spouse with children receives the first $50,000 plus one-half of what remains. The children take the rest in equal shares, and that includes a non-marital child. A minor can inherit a large sum. The court holds it. New Jersey uses its own intestacy statute, and it is not New York’s.
Our experience challenging attorney-drafted wills is what lets us draft wills built to hold up under the scrutiny of the court.
How do I make a will?
Drafting a will is the simplest and least expensive way to transfer an estate to the people who should have it. The Law Offices of Jason W. Stern & Associates can prepare one in a matter of hours, after a free consultation.
There is a spousal exemption under both federal law and New York law. Property that passes to a surviving spouse who is a United States citizen is deducted from the taxable estate. It does not use up the exclusion. If the spouse is not a United States citizen, that exemption does not apply in the same way.
For a death in 2026, the federal exclusion on what passes to someone other than that spouse is $15,000,000. What the first spouse does not use can be transferred to the survivor, if the estate elects it on a timely return. New York’s exclusion is $7,350,000. New York gives the spouse the same exemption. It does not transfer the unused New York exclusion to the survivor. Above $7,717,500, the New York exclusion is gone.
Only the original will is valid in court. If it cannot be produced, and it was last in the decedent’s hands, the law presumes the decedent destroyed it. The estate then goes into administration. Leave the original with a trusted New York estate attorney.
A properly executed will does not expire. It does go out of date. People come into a life and leave it, and property is bought and sold. The will can be revised, as often as needed, at little cost, so the right share goes to the right person. A later marriage, a divorce, or a child born after the will can change what it does. In New York, a divorce revokes the gifts to the former spouse.
No two estates are the same, so no two wills should be. The consultation is free.