New York Probate and Estate Administration Blog

The decedent died on April 15, 1954 leaving a last will and testament that was admitted to probate on April 30 of the same year. He was survived by his wife and his brother. After about 11 and 1/2 years, the wife filed an appeal under the Decedent Estate Law that contested the fourth, fifth and sixth paragraph of the will. Her claim was that in gives more than 50% of the testator’s estate to a religious association.

A New York Probate Lawyer says that Section 17 of the Decedent Estate Law says 'No person having a husband, wife, child, or descendant or parent, shall, by his or her last will and testament, devise or bequeath to any benevolent, charitable, literary, scientific, religious or missionary society, association, corporation or purpose, in trust or otherwise, more than one-half part of his or her estate, after the payment of his or her debts, and such devise or bequest shall be valid to the extent of one-half, and no more. The validity of a devise or bequest for more than such one-half may be contested only by a surviving husband, wife, child, descendant or parent...’

The decedent had made his wife, his brother and his friend and attorney executors of his estate. He gave to his wife $2,500 plus any earnings of the residue remainder of his estate, and she can get part of the principal up to $500 in a calendar year in case of illness. Upon his wife’s death or if his wife precedes him, his brother gets $1,000. $1,000 to be given to his churchin memory of my father and mother. To the church, he bequests $1,000 in memory of his wife. The rest of the residuary estate is given to the church.

The church as the residuary inheritor, contested that the widow’s claim should be stopped.Though that the wife had not waived her right to contest the excessive gift to the church explicitly. There is also no final settlement of the estate until the widow dies. The gift to the church is still undisputedly more than 50%, which is the limit.

It was the court’s opinion that the wife had the right to contest the excessive gift to the church. She can also raise that issue in a construction or accounting proceeding. The decision though, according to a Queens Estate Lawyer, must wait for the final settlement of the account when the court will already have all the information to make the determination. Even though the petition was filed at a late date, it is still valid as there is no limit for the time to file.

The widow’s death also does not terminate the contest for the validity of the bequest. The widow’s legal representative has the power to continue the proceedings in behalf of her estate. The contest begins when a preferred class, like the wife of descendant questions the validity of the will and since is personal then it will survive her death. With the widow filing her objection in a timely manner and the amount exceeding 50% of the estate after paying the debts and fees, a Queens Estate Administration Lawyer said the balance undistributed was given by the court to the heirs of the deceased as intestate property.

Some people may think that 11 years is a long time to wait to file an appeal against a provision of a will, but sometimes with the devastation of losing a love one you really need that time.

Continue reading "Court Rules on Will Contest" »

In 2010 when a person died, there would have been no estate tax owed, according to a New York Probate Lawyer. He added that in 2010 the estate tax had been repealed.
In 2011, estate taxes will be reinstated but a high amount of $5 million will be set. In the past, two spouses could individually file their own exemptions, which brought this number up to $10 million. The catch was they had to use caution with the way they labeled assets and had “to have bypass trusted drafted by estate planning attorneys”.
Trust preparation costs as much as $5,000 to $10,000. President Obama’s new tax law aims to create decent tax breaks for married couples because spouses can use leftover portions of a deceased spouse’s estate tax on their own exemptions with no trust requirements. This means a taxable estate of $3.5 million that is left behind could be added as part of the $5 million exemption for a later date or time. Families in Manhattan a Queens qualify for these advantages.
A New York Probate Lawyer calls this new tax law a great “portable” feature for estate money and preserving taxes. The only downfall according to some is the fact that the law was only signed for 2011 and 2012. Still, most agree the new law will provide great benefits to most people in the higher tax brackets and will save a lot of money on the potentially expensive trusts they will not have to create during this time.

Continue reading "What new tax laws will mean for married couples, explains New York Estate Planning Lawyers " »

A local Ohio town worries about the effects eliminating the estate tax will have on its overall revenue and future plans.

The town’s financial director says here city receives a large chunk of revenue from estate taxes currently. For example an Estate that’s valued at over $500,000 is taxed at 7 percent. The town gets 80 percent of this revenue and the rest goes to the state of Ohio she added.

This high percentage translates to roughly $5 million per year for the city, said aNew York Estate Planning Lawyer. He went on to say that the city budgets for this currently and without the extra revenue will likely have to find other ways to make cuts. Estate Administration in Manhattan and Queens must take these taxes into account for their clients.

Currently the town has plans for large capital improvements to the tune of $52.6 million over the next decade and was counting on the cash revenue from estate taxes to complete these projects. New York Estate Planning Lawyers commented that the projected tax revenue losses will have to make up in other ways.

“We’ll use up all of our existing estate tax dollars and nothing to replace them with,” said a town official. “We don’t know for sure what will happen and will have to adjust.”

Another official said, “We’re going to have to cut our expenses in order to keep wealthy residents from moving away.”

NY Estate Planning Lawyers anticipate the next council meeting will be mostly about finding other ways for the town to create revenue for itself for future projects.

Continue reading "Loss of Estate Tax translates to loss of major revenue for a local Ohio town, reports New York Estate Planning Lawyers." »