Trusted Forest Hills Estate Planning Lawyers

Thinking about estate planning can be a stressful and difficult topic. No one wants to confront death, whether it is their own or that of a loved one. Through estate planning, you can also plan for the future success of your business and protect the assets you have worked so hard to earn.

At DeCandido & Azachi, PLLC, we understand how sensitive these issues are for you and your family. Our Queens estate planning attorneys focus on fostering a warm, compassionate atmosphere to help you navigate these issues. We have served clients in Queens, Nassau County and throughout New York City for years, helping them get the estate planning, asset protection and business succession solutions they need in a timely manner.

On This Page

What Is Estate Planning?
What Could A Personalized Estate Plan Look Like?

• Estate Planning For Business Owners: Securing Your Legacy And Minimizing Taxes
• Family Estate Planning: Protecting Children And Ensuring Financial Security
• Blended Family Estate Solutions: Equitable Distribution And Conflict Avoidance
• Guardianship And Elder Care Planning: Managing A Parent’s Affairs With Compassion

Understanding The Importance Of Estate Planning For Financial Health
Estate Tax Planning Strategies For Those With Significant Assets
Schedule A Free Initial Meeting With A Queens Estate Planning Lawyer Who Listens To Your Needs

What Is Estate Planning?

No one knows what the future has in store. One of the best ways to guard against life’s inherent uncertainty is to establish a complete estate plan. Estate planning is an important process where you prepare to pass on your assets in a way that reflects your wishes if you pass away or become unable to make decisions.

While most people want to provide for their loved ones in their estate plans, it is vital to create a personalized estate plan because everyone’s life is different. Each family involves unique situations, types of assets and hopes for the future. Personalized estate planning considers all these factors to come up with a plan that fits perfectly with your goals.

As a full-service estate planning firm, we help people create plans tailored to each person’s goals and situation. This can include:

• Wills: Designating your beneficiaries and passing on your assets.
• Trusts: Using revocable and irrevocable trusts to bypass probate and taxes.
• Powers of attorney: Naming someone you trust to manage your affairs if you cannot.
• Health care directives: Making a road map of your medical care if an emergency occurs.
• Living wills: Giving your loved ones the knowledge of how to handle end-of-life care.
• Charitable contributions: Supporting causes you care about after you pass on.
• Probate and administration proceedings: Guiding executors through estate administration.

We pride ourselves on the time we take to get to know every one of our clients. We listen to your concerns and learn about the important aspects of your life you want to safeguard. We can help you draft comprehensive, legally secure documents that protect your future wishes and better ensure your assets go to your heirs as efficiently as possible.

What Could A Personalized Estate Plan Look Like?

The tools someone uses to achieve their estate planning vary greatly depending on their personal circumstances. Having a knowledgeable estate planning attorney can make all the difference. How might an estate planning attorney help people in different situations achieve their goals?

Estate Planning For Business Owners: Securing Your Legacy And Minimizing Taxes

An entrepreneur may have spent their adult years building a thriving company. As they plan for the future, their primary goals are to ensure the continuity of the business and to minimize the tax burden on heirs. They may envision his children taking over the company one day, maintaining the family’s values and the brand’s reputation.

An estate planning attorney can help achieve these goals by designing a comprehensive plan that includes a business succession plan, trusts and other legal structures to minimize estate taxes and facilitate a smooth transition. An attorney may also create a buy-sell agreement, ensuring that control of the business stays within the family while also creating a path for family members to sell their share of the company and pursue other ventures.

We understand the unique challenges business owners face when planning for the future. Our approach to estate planning is both personal and strategic, designed to help your business thrive for generations. Our business succession attorneys, steeped in the complexities of estate planning law, stand ready to safeguard your life’s work. We guide you through every step, from structuring your business assets to designing a succession plan that aligns with your vision. Our goal is to make sure that your wealth and the business you have built are protected. Let us help you create a plan that secures your entrepreneurial spirit and serves your family’s needs well into the future.

Family Estate Planning: Protecting Children And Ensuring Financial Security

A couple with young children would want to ensure their financial security and education, should anything happen to the parents. They may also be concerned that their children could inherit too much money at a young age and make foolish choices about their inheritance.

An estate planning attorney can help them name a trustee to manage the estate and look after the children’s needs until they reach an appropriate age. A well-crafted trust can also outline guidelines that distribute assets to the children at specified ages or milestones, such as graduating from college. This can help manage the distribution of the estate according to the parents’ wishes.

Blended Family Estate Solutions: Equitable Distribution And Conflict Avoidance

A couple may have entered their marriage with children from previous relationships. They would want to balance providing for each other with ensuring that their children all receive a fair inheritance. They would also want to avoid accidentally disinheriting loved ones by leaving all of their assets directly to either their spouse or their children.

An estate planning attorney can help couples create a plan that addresses the unique dynamics of their blended family. This could include setting up a trust to provide for the surviving spouse during their lifetime and then distributing the remaining assets equally among all four children. Additionally, clear instructions and communication facilitated by the attorney can help minimize potential conflicts among family members.

Guardianship And Elder Care Planning: Managing A Parent’s Affairs With Compassion

Adults often become concerned about their aging parents, especially if they begin to show signs of dementia or other degenerative diseases that make them no longer be able to make personal, medical or financial decisions on their own. In these cases, adult children often want to make their parent’s health care and financial affairs a priority, ensuring that they have competent and compassionate support as their condition progresses.

An estate planning attorney can assist these adult children by setting up a durable power of attorney and a health care proxy to allow them to make decisions regarding their parents’ finances and health care. Additionally, the attorney might suggest establishing a trust to manage a parent’s assets. This proactive approach can not only secure the well-being of aging parents but also provide peace of mind. An attorney may also help adult children consider options like guardianship as it becomes more difficult for their parents to care for their own needs.

Our knowledgeable lawyers can help you apply for guardianship over an aging parent, a minor child or an individual with special needs. When another relative contests guardianship, our seasoned litigation attorneys will advocate for your interests in court. When it comes to such a sensitive topic, you can rest assured that you can confide in our compassionate team members.

Understanding The Importance Of Estate Planning For Financial Health

People often overlook estate planning as an aspect of financial planning. However, it is a critical component for securing your financial future and that of your loved ones. Effective estate planning helps ensure that your beneficiaries receive your assets according to your wishes and in the most efficient manner possible.

Not only can an estate plan provide for loved ones, but it can also help protect their financial stability. This is particularly important if the beneficiaries are minors or unable to manage money well. With the right guidance during the estate planning process, you can ensure that your assets do not end up in unintended hands and have effective management.

Estate planning can also reduce taxes and other expenses. The right strategy can help you minimize the taxes imposed on your estate and maximize the value of the estate that gets passed on to your beneficiaries. Because an effective tax strategy requires careful coordination of all elements of the estate plan, it is vital to have an attorney who can ensure that all elements of the plan work together to achieve your goals.

The importance of estate planning becomes even greater as the population ages. For instance, with longer life expectancies, there is a greater need for planning around health care and retirement funds, ensuring they last longer potentially than anticipated. Parents may also want to consider “upstream” gifting as a strategy to limit the impact of taxes. The guidance of an attorney can help you effectively plan for the future and protect your legacy.

Estate Tax Planning Strategies For Those With Significant Assets

If you are concerned about protecting your wealth, estate tax planning can help protect your assets from unnecessary taxation and limit inheritance taxes for your beneficiaries. With guidance from an experienced Queens estate tax planning attorney, you can take a strategic approach to the federal estate tax and gain deeper insights into the New York state tax laws.

New York estate tax planning can be a multifaceted process involving the strategic use of various estate planning tools, such as:

• Tax-deferred retirement accounts: These accounts, like traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, allow for asset growth without immediate tax obligations. Contributions are made with pretax income, potentially lowering current tax liabilities and taxes are deferred until distribution during retirement, ideally at a lower rate.
• Irrevocable life insurance trusts: You can also utilize these trusts to remove life insurance proceeds from your taxable estate, ensuring that your beneficiaries receive the full benefit of the policy without incurring estate taxes.
• GRATs: Grantor-retained annuity trusts (GRATs) are also effective estate planning tools, allowing you to transfer assets to beneficiaries while retaining an annuity payment for a specified term, potentially reducing gift and estate tax liabilities.
• LLCs: Legal entities such as Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) offer flexibility and asset protection, allowing for the transfer of ownership interests and management control while potentially reducing estate tax exposure through strategic gifting and valuation discounts.
• QPRTs: Your tax lawyer may also recommend Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs), which enable you to transfer your primary or secondary residence to beneficiaries at a reduced gift tax value, potentially minimizing estate tax liabilities while retaining the right to reside in the property for a specified term.

When planning your estate, it is important to seek legal guidance from a Queens estate planning lawyer proficient in both New York estate planning and business tax laws to obtain comprehensive protection of your assets and compliance with relevant regulations.

Schedule A Free Initial Meeting With A Queens Estate Planning Lawyer Who Listens To Your Needs

Our team is ready to work diligently on your behalf. Contact our Forest Hills office to schedule a no-cost meeting by calling 718-690-7715 or by using our online contact form.