A living trust is a common addition to the average estate plan. If you are contemplating the creation of a living trust, you will need to decide if your trust will be a revocable living trust or an irrevocable living trust. You may be wondering why you would want to make your trust irrevocable. The Hauppauge living trust attorneys at the Law Offices of Kobrick & Moccia discuss the benefits of creating an irrevocable living trust. When Is An Irrevocable Living Trust Necessary? It is … [Read more...] about Why Would I Want to Make My Trust Irrevocable?

If you are a parent, one of your primary goals when you create an estate plan is likely ensuring that the inheritance you leave behind for your children is passed down to them according to your wishes. You may, however, be torn with regard to exactly how much of an inheritance to leave each child. Should you split your estate equally among your children – even if you have concerns about how one child will handle his/her inheritance?  In an effort to help you, the Harrison inheritance planning … [Read more...] about Should I Leave My Children an Equal Inheritance?

Your initial estate plan may consist of nothing more than a Last Will and Testament because your only real estate planning goal at that time is to avoid leaving behind an intestate estate. Over the years, however, your estate plan will grow as your needs and objectives change and expand. Additional estate planning tools and strategies will need to be incorporated into your plan to help meet those new needs and objectives. One common addition to an existing estate plan is a trust. Deciding which … [Read more...] about How Do I Know When to Use a Revocable Trust?

Creating a successful estate plan often requires you to make use of a wide range of inter-related estate planning tools and documents. Moreover, as your estate and your family grow, your estate plan will likely need to grow as well. If you divorce and remarry, for example, you may now need to protect both your new spouse and your children from your previous marriage. One popular way to do that is to make use of a specialized type of trust known as a Qualified Terminable Interest Property, or … [Read more...] about QTIP Trust Requirements

Although every estate plan should be crafted with the individual needs and goals of the creator in mind, there are some commonly used estate planning tools and strategies with which you should become familiar. Toward that end, the Hauppauge living trust attorneys at the Law Offices of Kobrick & Moccia explain why you might need a living trust in your estate plan. What Is a Living Trust? A living trust is one of two broad categories into which trusts are divided, with the other category … [Read more...] about Why Might I Need a Living Trust?

The primary motivation for creating your estate plan will likely be to ensure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes when you are gone so that those assets can continue to provide for your surviving loved ones. Along with your Last Will and Testament, you will likely use a wide array of additional estate planning tools and strategies within your plan. The Harrison living trust lawyers at the Law Offices of Kobrick & Moccia explain how to use an incentive trust in your … [Read more...] about Incentive Trusts

Estate planning involves making a number of important, and often difficult decisions. While your initial estate plan may be rather simplistic, it will likely grow more complex as your estate assets increase in value and your family grows in size. Consequently, the decisions you are required to make will also become more complex. One of those decisions may involve the use of a living trust, instead of a Last Will and Testament, as the primary method of distributing your estate assets. The … [Read more...] about 5 Reasons to Use a Living Trust to Distribute Your Estate

Whether you have experienced first-hand how cumbersome the probate process can be, or you have simply been warned about it, you may now be determined to keep your estate’s exposure to probate to a minimum.  To help you better understand how your estate can reach your probate avoidance goal, the probate lawyers at the Law Offices of Kobrick & Moccia discuss the purpose of probate and how careful estate planning can significantly contribute to your probate avoidance goal. What Is Probate and … [Read more...] about How Do I Create an Estate Plan that Avoids Probate?

Once your estate plan moves beyond the basics, there is a good chance you will decide to incorporate a trust into your overall plan to help achieve one of your many estate planning goals. You may, however, decide you need to make changes to your trust agreement at some point down the road. The Hauppauge trust lawyers at the Law Offices of Kobrick & Moccia explain how you modify a trust in case you find yourself at that point. Understanding Your Trust At its most basic, a trust is a … [Read more...] about How Do I Modify a Trust?

There is much more to estate planning than simply deciding who will receive your estate assets when you are gone. Although the primary goal of your estate plan may be to provide for loved ones in your absence, there are typically a number of additional inter-related goals that must be incorporated into an estate plan. Probate avoidance is one of the most common of those additional goals. With that in mind, the Hauppauge trust lawyers at the Law Offices of Kobrick & Moccia explain the … [Read more...] about Hauppauge Trust Lawyers Explain the Probate Avoidance Benefits of Using a Trust