Category Archives: Estate Planning
Should You Front Load Your Retirement With Fun?
When you consider it carefully, “What do you want to do when you retire?” is more than one question. Most people will answer with ideas for travel and adventures, or else long-awaited bucket list items they have long looked forward to accomplishing, such as cooking a Thanksgiving dinner from scratch for the whole family…. Read More »
Back to School Estate Planning: Protecting Your Kids’ Future
During the back-to-school season in August, it is easy to focus on numerous details that only affect the immediate future. You buy as many school clothes as you can before the tax-free shopping days end, even though you know your children will have outgrown them a year from now. You scramble to buy all… Read More »
The Complete Guide to Estate Planning in New York: Wills, Trusts, and More
Estate planning sounds like a big job, and the best estate plan is never finished. Despite this, your estate plan does not have to be complicated to do its job of saving your family from a stressful probate case after you die and from having to make heartbreaking and conflict-prone decisions during your final… Read More »
Charitable Trusts
The beauty of estate planning is that you can use your money to benefit anyone you choose. This is true whether the value of your property is modest, you are fabulously wealthy, or anything in between. There is no rule requiring you to make your family the beneficiaries of your will. If you do… Read More »
Common Reasons for Estate Litigation
Probate lawyers often reassure their clients that probate is a routine process, more like filing an income tax return than being a party in a lawsuit. This is true except when it isn’t. Uncomplicated probate cases account for the majority of estates, but the reason that probate exists is to serve as a venue… Read More »
Should Inter Vivos Gifts Be Part of Your Estate Plan?
An inter vivos gift is any gift you make while living. Few people think of gifts as a helpful component of an estate plan, but there are many reasons to consider making them. At Cavallo & Cavallo, our Westchester estate planning lawyers make all estate planning tools available for clients. We can advise on… Read More »
Where Should You Store Your Estate Plan?
So you created an estate plan. Congratulations! You are now ahead of the curve. According to a Gallup poll, fewer than 50% of Americans even have a simple will in place, and we imagine even fewer have critical documents like a health care proxy. By creating an estate plan, you can now breathe a… Read More »
Five Wishes Can Simplify Your Estate Plan
The websites of estate planning lawyers and financial planners often encourage you to start your estate plan by making wishes. They tell you to envision yourself watching Broadway shows with your friends during the summer and walking on the beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida with your spouse in the winter. Once you… Read More »
Is High-Risk Borrowing a Sign of Elder Financial Abuse?
The stereotypical image of financial abuse of the elderly is when an opportunistic person ingratiates himself or herself to a lonely but financially secure elderly person and takes advantage of the elderly person’s generosity and physical and emotional vulnerability. The abuser might be a paid caregiver who builds a friendly rapport with the elderly… Read More »
Choosing a Nursing Home
Which nursing home do you want to move to in the future? That is easy. None of them! No one wants to entertain the possibility that they will one day be ill enough that they will require around-the-clock care. If you only need help sometimes, then you have the option of relying on relatives… Read More »