Question 1

What if I die tomorrow?

Accepted Answer

What if I die tomorrow?

Question 2

What if I become incapacitated?

Accepted Answer

What if I become incapacitated?

Question 3

What if I (or my ex) remarry?

Accepted Answer

A new spouse in New York gets a right of election — roughly the greater of $50,000 or one-third of the estate — no matter what an older will says. Prenups and trusts are how you plan around it; silence is how first-marriage children get displaced.

Question 4

What if my business partner dies?

Accepted Answer

What if my business partner dies?

Question 5

What if my special-needs family member inherits directly?

Accepted Answer

Means-tested benefits — Medicaid, SSI — have hard asset limits (New York's 2026 Medicaid limit for a single person is $32,396). A direct inheritance of any real size disqualifies the beneficiary the month it arrives. Benefits stop; the inheritance is spent down on what benefits used to cover; then they re-apply from zero. Grandparents' wills and beneficiary forms are the classic blind spot: your own plan can be perfect, and one well-meaning bequest from a relative undoes it. The whole family's documents need to point at the trust.

Question 6

What if New York law changes?

Accepted Answer

The numbers move constantly: New York's 2026 estate-tax exclusion is $7,350,000 with the 105% cliff at $7,717,500 — cross it by a dollar and the ENTIRE estate is taxed. The federal exemption ($15,000,000 in 2026) has changed repeatedly over the past twenty years, and a community Medicaid look-back has been enacted but repeatedly postponed. A plan written for one set of numbers can misfire under the next set — formulas in old wills can accidentally disinherit a spouse when exemptions rise. That's why every plan we build is reviewed against the current figures, and why our 2026 New York Numbers

What would happen to your family — and your stuff — if something happened to you?

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