Estate Planning Resolutions for the New Year: A New York Perspective

You know you are old if you can remember when George H. Bush said that it was his right, as President of the United States, to decide whether he ever wanted to eat broccoli again. You may never have been elected to public office, but you can identify with the sentiment that, once you reach a certain age, you never again have to do the things other people made you do when you were younger. When you were in elementary school, your teachers used to crow about their resolutions to eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise more, read more, watch less TV, and quit biting their fingernails. Now that you are on the AARP’s mailing list, it is your right to decide that you do not have to overhaul your life just because it is a new calendar year. New Year’s resolutions are for chumps; no one benefits from them except the owners of gyms. People sign up for gym memberships in January, work out during the first few weeks of the year, and then spend the rest of the year trying to get around to canceling their gym membership as it charges their debit card every month. Making a New Year’s resolution to begin estate planning or update your estate plan is a worthy goal, but it is even better to do it now, while the old year is still going on. For help making as much progress as possible on your estate plan during what remains of 2025, contact a Bronx estate planning lawyer.

An Ounce of Locked in for Q4 Is Worth a Pound of New Year’s Resolutions

If making New Year’s resolutions is a feature of the midlife doldrums and ditching them is a privilege of the elderly, then perhaps you should take a page from the playbook of Generation Z and trade in New Year’s resolutions for a commitment to spending the last quarter of the year “locked in” to the pursuit of your goals. Journalists don’t know why young adults are ditching their smartphones for a few months to focus on pursuing their goals. Maybe it is because the future is so uncertain that, if they are still here at all by the beginning of next year, they will be too exhausted to commit to a resolution. The present moment is the only thing they can be sure of.

At your age, you have been around for enough years to be fairly sure that you will be here for another, but you should still get started on your estate planning goals. Reread and revise your will or establish a revocable trust. Move your legal domicile to a state that, unlike New York, does not have estate taxes or inheritance taxes. If you only have the energy to do the fun parts of your estate planning, write checks of several thousand dollars each to as many people as you can afford to be the most generous to, so you can benefit from the annual gift tax exclusion.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney

An estate planning lawyer can help you get your estate plan into the best possible shape by 2025.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Source:

vox.com/culture/464023/great-lock-in-tiktok-hard-75-winter-arc-gen-z