Need legal counsel for your estate?
The firm helps you through the planning of your New York estate and through every step of the probate process. The Queens probate lawyers have more than 70 years of combined estate law experience handling estates for families.
Each year, avoidable estate tax is paid to the federal government and to New York. That usually happens when a family does not prepare, with a lawyer, for the probate of the estate.
When a person dies with a will, that person is a testator. The will is probated in Surrogate’s Court. Probate is the proceeding that proves the will and appoints the executor named in it. The proceeds are then distributed to the beneficiaries as the testator directed.
Our perspective, challenging attorney-drafted wills, is what makes our experience so valuable.
Preparing your estate
Creating and preserving the original of your will, in a safe place, prevents one of the biggest financial burdens a person can place on their loved ones at an already difficult time. New York files the original. A copy is not a substitute. If the original cannot be found, the law can treat the death as if there were no will.
A death with no will is a different case. That estate is intestate, and it goes through administration, which is a longer and more expensive proceeding. This page is about the will: getting it admitted, and distributing the estate as the will provides.
No one who receives an estate should bear a higher tax than the law requires. A will is how those proceeds pass from one generation to the next. For a death in 2026, the federal exclusion is $15,000,000 and the New York exclusion is $7,350,000. New York does not follow federal portability. Past $7,717,500, the New York exclusion is gone.
What matters in the probate itself:
- A surviving spouse can elect against the will. The New York elective share is the greater of $50,000 or one-third of the net estate. If the net estate is under $50,000, the spouse takes all of it. Debts, administration expenses, and reasonable funeral expenses come off first. The election is filed within six months after letters issue, and no later than two years after the death.
- An account with a named beneficiary, and property owned jointly, does not pass under the will. The probate does not move it. Some of those assets are still counted if a spouse elects against the will.
- Leave the original intact, staples included. Taking it apart is how a probate picks up a fight over whether the will was changed.
Questions about a New York probate? Contact the firm. The consultation is free.