Warren Hillman was a federal employee who owned a Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Policy with a death benefit worth over $124,000. Hillman had named his former wife, Judy Maretta, as the beneficiary on that policy. When they divorced, Hillman neglected to change that designation, even after he remarried. When Hillman died in 2008,… Read More »
While most people care about leaving their family in the best financial shape possible, only half of all Americans have a will. Gallup polls suggest the older a person gets the more likely they will have a will or other estate plan. In fact, more than 70% of Americans ages 50 or older have a… Read More »
According to a 2011 Columbia University study, 46 percent of American high school students use alcohol or drugs (approximately six million teenagers), and that almost all those suffering from substance abuse addictions started using before they reached their 18th birthday. Parents are often at a loss when dealing with a teen or adult heir who… Read More »
When George Steinbrenner died in July 2010, his most famous asset — the New York Yankees — was left in the care of his two sons Hal and Hank. Many Yankee fans wondered how this might affect baseball’s most successful franchise and whether or not the team would be sold. It turned out that while… Read More »
Mark Zuckerberg is probably the most well known of the world’s 29 billionaires under the age of 40. He and his college roommates originally developed and launched a social media company, Facebook, while they were still at Harvard. Facebook took off so quickly that Zuckerberg became a billionaire in 2007 when he was just 23 years… Read More »
More than three million Americans will reside in a nursing home at some point this year. Many families cannot predict when their loved one must begin to rely on outside assistance — a sudden illness can cause a previously independent senior to be in urgent need of full-time care. Families should plan for this possibility… Read More »
If your estate plan includes a trust, one of the most important decisions you will make is who the trustee (or trustees) should be. If the trust is one which will give the trustee(s) discretion about how much money to give the beneficiaries — and under what circumstances — then choosing the trustee may be… Read More »
According to a National Association of Realtors 2013 survey, vacation home sales rose to more than 550,000 last year, up about 10 percent from 2011. This means that more and more New Yorkers are likely to die owning estates that include property in another state, such as a vacation home in Maine (where fully eight… Read More »
As a general rule, a will must be in writing and properly witnessed to be valid in New York. You should assume that this is the sort of will you will need to make to ensure that your property is disposed of as you wish. Unlike many states, New York does not generally recognize handwritten,… Read More »
If you are a parent, you probably already know how a baby can change your life. But what you may not know is how the birth or adoption of a child can radically upset an estate plan. What is a pretermitted child? A child who is born after someone makes a will but before the… Read More »