Trusts provide enhanced privacy, avoid the delay and public record of probate court, and allow grantors to place specific conditions on how and when assets are distributed to beneficiaries. We structure a wide range of trusts designed to achieve distinct asset preservation goals: 

• Revocable Living Trusts: Enable clients to maintain full control over assets during life while ensuring an immediate, private transfer to beneficiaries upon death without Surrogate’s Court involvement. 

• Irrevocable Trusts: Provide asset protection against potential future creditors, shield real estate and liquid capital, and facilitate long-term tax and Medicaid planning. 

• Supplemental Needs Trusts (SNTs): Ensure that family members with disabilities or special needs receive vital financial support from an inheritance without disqualifying them from essential government assistance programs such as SSI or Medicaid. 

• Spendthrift and Generation-Skipping Trusts: Protect inherited assets from a beneficiary's potential creditors, divorces, or financial mismanagement across generations. 

For entrepreneurs and closely held business owners, an estate plan must account for operational continuity. The sudden death or incapacitation of a partner or principal owner can paralyze a company, disrupt payroll, and create operational deadlocks between surviving partners and heirs. 

We collaborate with business clients to integrate corporate governance with estate planning: 

• Structuring buy-sell agreements funded by life insurance or installment notes. 

• Drafting operating and shareholder agreements with clear transfer restrictions and management succession protocols. 

• Coordinating equity transfers to children or key executives while preserving operational leadership. 

• Planning for business valuation and tax exposure upon an owner’s passing. 

The loss of a family member brings profound grief, often compounded by administrative burdens. When an individual passes away with assets in New York, their estate must be administered through the Surrogate’s Court of the county where they resided. 

We guide fiduciaries through every phase of estate administration: 

• Probate Proceedings: Admitting the decedent’s Last Will and Testament to probate, validating the instrument, and securing Letters Testamentary for the named executor. 

• Intestate Administration: When someone passes without a valid will, we petition the Surrogate’s Court for Letters of Administration on behalf of eligible distributees under New York’s intestacy statutes. 

• Estate Marshaling and Accounting: Assisting fiduciaries in locating and valuing estate assets, resolving valid creditor claims, liquidating estate property, and preparing informal or judicial accountings.

• Trust Administration: Advising trustees on their legal duties under New York fiduciary law, managing distributions, maintaining accounting ledgers, and closing out trusts upon termination. 

When disagreements arise among heirs, fiduciaries, or disinherited family members, estate administration can quickly become contentious. Navigating Surrogate’s Court disputes requires litigators who understand both complex procedural rules and trial advocacy. 

Our firm represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in high-stakes estate litigation, including: 

• Will Contests: Conducting pre-objection document discovery and examining drafting attorneys and attesting witnesses under oath regarding testamentary capacity, undue influence, duress, or improper execution. 

• Fiduciary Removal Proceedings: Petitioning for the suspension or removal of executors or trustees for breach of fiduciary duty, commingling assets, self-dealing, or mismanagement of estate property. 

• Kinship Proceedings: Proving legal relationship and heirship in complex estates where the decedent left no immediate family and surviving distributees must be traced through extensive genealogical and historical records. 

• Contested Accountings and Claims: Defending or challenging formal judicial accountings, disputed creditor claims, and spousal right-of-election claims.