Your most valued asset is your family. Protect them when you are gone.
Our Specialities
Trusts
Wills
Health Care Proxies
Power of Attorneys
Trusts
So many clients have so many different questions about trusts. The types of trusts are as varied as are the different reasons for those trusts.
There are irrevocable trusts which are designed to shield your assets from the expense of prolonged medical or nursing home care. The creation of such trusts is occaisioned by the obvious fear that, if such a catastrophic or long-term care situation arises, the "nest-egg," which you spent a lifetime accumulating, will be lost to you, your spouse, your children, or the other objects of your affection.
There are revocable living trusts which do not afford such protection from asset depletion, but which do obviate the need for the administration or probate of your estate upon death.
Your need for a particular type of trust can only be determined after a studied consultation with a member of the firm. We encourage your call.
Wills, Health Care Proxies and Power of Attorneys
Most people know that they should have a will, or that their existing will should be reviewed, changed or updated; but too few take the simple affirmative step to accomplish it. Instead, they procrastinate and fail to protect their loved ones by completing a will, or by keeping their will current.
Harold and Christopher Otterbeck have prepared countless wills, and assisted innumerable clients in the preparation of estate plans. Our goal is to have our client(s)' assets pass to their loved ones in an orderly and economical fashion.
For those of you who have a will in place, it may be time for you to review it and your estate plan. So many people execute a will at one time in their life, and never revisit it. Hopefully, this is not you. Over time, your finances, the economy, your family situation, and the law, change. Your will and estate plan may require change as well.
Over the years, the practice surrounding will preparation has changed. In the past, generally only a will was executed. Today, at the time of will execution, it is considered good practice to not only execute a will, but also, a health care proxy and a durable power of attorney. These documents are as important, if not more important, than the will itself.
For example, it is extremely likely that individuals, who may have executed a will at a time prior to the effective date of the New York State health care proxy law, do not have a health care proxy in place. The health care proxy permits you to designate someone of your choosing to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to communicate them to your doctor. Consequently, if you have a will that was executed before the passage of this law, or if you don't have a will, you may not have a health care proxy either….but you should!
A durable power of attorney permits individual(s), whom you designate, to make financial and asset decisions for you if you are unable to do so. This law has recently changed as has the form which should be used to give someone this power.