Estate Planning Attorney in New York

Estate planning means putting in writing who receives your property, who manages it, and who makes decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself. Schwartsman Law Group prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and health care proxies for families in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Long Island. Our attorneys are licensed in New York and draft under New York law. Call (212) 518-3868 or schedule a free consultation.

What a New York Estate Plan Usually Includes

Most plans start with a few core documents. The right mix depends on your family, your assets, and how much control you want over what happens to them later.

• Last will and testament: names an executor, directs who inherits, and can name a guardian for minor children.
• Revocable living trust: holds assets during your life and passes them under the trust's terms at death. You can change it while you are alive.
• Irrevocable trust: used for specific goals, such as estate tax planning or long-term care planning, where giving up some control is part of the strategy.
• Durable power of attorney: lets an agent you choose handle financial matters under the New York statutory form in General Obligations Law § 5-1501B.
• Health care proxy: names an agent to make medical decisions if you cannot, under Public Health Law § 2981.
• Beneficiary and account review: retirement accounts, life insurance, and jointly titled property often pass outside the will, so they need to match the plan.

What Happens in New York Without a Plan

If you die without a will, New York's intestacy statute, EPTL 4-1.1, decides who inherits. The statute does not consider your wishes, your relationships, or your family's needs:

• Spouse and children: the spouse receives $50,000 plus one-half of the rest, and the children share the balance by representation.
• Spouse and no children: the spouse receives everything.
• Children and no spouse: the children receive everything.
• No spouse or children: the estate goes to parents, then to siblings and their descendants, then to more distant relatives in the order the statute sets.

Unmarried partners, stepchildren, close friends, and charities receive nothing under intestacy. The person who administers the estate is also chosen by statute. Under SCPA 1001, a spouse has first priority, followed by children, grandchildren, parents, and siblings.

Planning also matters while you are alive. If you lose capacity without a power of attorney or health care proxy, your family may need to ask a court to appoint a guardian under Mental Hygiene Law Article 81. Before appointing one, the court considers whether a guardian is necessary, and the “available resources” it reviews expressly include powers of attorney, health care proxies, and trusts (MHL § 81.03(e)). Signing these documents ahead of time can give the court and your family a less restrictive option.

Will or Trust? A Practical Decision Guide

Choosing between a will and a trust is one of the first decisions most clients make. Neither is automatically better. The table below shows how the decision often goes. Our wills vs. trusts guide for New York covers the comparison in more depth.

If this describes you…	What often fits	Why
Modest estate, mostly personal property, with beneficiary designations already in place	Will, plus power of attorney and health care proxy	Simple to sign and update. New York's small estate procedure (SCPA 1301) covers personal property with a gross value of $50,000 or less.
Minor children	Will naming a guardian, often with a trust for the children's inheritance	The will names the guardian. A trust controls when and how the children receive money.
Real estate in more than one place, or a strong preference for privacy and continuity	Revocable living trust with a “pour-over” will	Assets titled in the trust are managed and distributed under its terms by your successor trustee.
Blended family, or a beneficiary who needs structure	Trust-based plan	A trust can stagger distributions, protect a spouse's interest, and still preserve assets for children from an earlier relationship.
Estate near or above the New York exclusion amount	Tax-focused trust planning, possibly with irrevocable trusts	New York's estate tax “cliff” can make a small amount above the threshold very costly. See the estate tax section below.
Concern about paying for nursing-home care	Possible irrevocable trust, timed with Medicaid rules in mind	Transfers are reviewed under a 60-month look-back for institutional Medicaid, so timing matters.

When a Will Is Often Enough

A will works well when your assets are straightforward, your beneficiaries are adults, and you are comfortable with the estate going through Surrogate's Court. Probate is handled in the county where you lived at death (SCPA 205). For New York City residents, that means the Surrogate's Court on Johnson Street in Brooklyn, Chambers Street in Manhattan, Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica, Grand Concourse in the Bronx, or Richmond Terrace on Staten Island. On Long Island, it means the Nassau County Surrogate's Court or the Suffolk County Surrogate's Court in Riverhead.

When a Revocable Living Trust Is Worth a Look

A revocable trust can help you plan for incapacity and transfer assets that are properly titled to the trust without probate. A trust only works if you fund it. Under EPTL 7-1.18, a lifetime trust is valid only to the extent assets are actually transferred into it, and a recital in the document that you transferred property is not a transfer. Our revocable living trust guide explains funding step by step. If you are moving a home into your own revocable trust, the transfer may qualify for transfer-tax exemptions as a conveyance without consideration or a mere change of identity (Tax Law § 1405(b)(4) and (b)(6); NYC Admin. Code § 11-2106(b)(8)). The deed still has to be handled correctly, so qualifying for an exemption does not remove the paperwork.

When an Irrevocable Trust Enters the Discussion

Irrevocable trusts are used when moving assets out of your taxable estate or planning for long-term care justifies giving up direct control. For institutional (nursing-home) Medicaid, transfers are reviewed under a 60-month look-back. A proposed 30-month look-back for community-based (home-care) Medicaid is not in effect, and its implementation has been delayed. Our irrevocable trusts guide covers the main types and their trade-offs.

Signing a Valid New York Will (EPTL 3-2.1)

New York requires specific formalities when a will is signed. Under EPTL 3-2.1:

• You sign the will at the end.
• You sign in front of each witness, or acknowledge your signature to each witness.
• You declare to each witness that the document is your will.
• At least two witnesses sign, within one 30-day period.

We supervise the signing ceremony so these steps are completed and documented. When a will is offered for probate, the Surrogate's Court looks into whether it was properly executed and whether the person who signed it was competent (SCPA 1408). A careful signing helps the court answer those questions.

Electronic wills are not yet available. New York has enacted a law allowing electronic wills (EPTL 3-6.1 et seq., L.2025 c.637, as amended by L.2026 c.89), but it does not take effect until December 12, 2027. Until then, New York wills are signed on paper with the traditional two-witness ceremony.

A will can also include a no-contest clause. Under EPTL 3-3.5, these clauses are generally enforceable, with statutory safe harbors. For example, a beneficiary may bring a forgery or later-revocation challenge with probable cause, or take part in SCPA 1404 examinations, without losing their inheritance.

Creating a Trust (EPTL 7-1.17)

A New York lifetime trust must be in writing. It must be signed and acknowledged by the person creating it and by at least one trustee (unless the creator is the sole trustee), or witnessed by two people. Amendments follow the same rules. After signing, we help you retitle accounts and real estate so the trust holds what it is supposed to hold.

Powers of Attorney Under GOL § 5-1501B

A financial power of attorney lets someone you trust pay bills, manage accounts, and deal with banks and government agencies if you cannot. The current version of General Obligations Law § 5-1501B took effect on October 25, 2023. Under the current statute, a New York statutory short form power of attorney must be:

• printed in at least 12-point type;
• signed and dated by the principal;
• acknowledged before a notary;
• witnessed by two people (the notary may serve as one of them); and
• signed and acknowledged by each agent before the agent acts.

If your power of attorney was signed years ago, or on a form from another state, we can review it with you and recommend whether to update it.

Health Care Proxy

A health care proxy names an agent to make medical decisions when you cannot. Under Public Health Law § 2981, in its current form effective March 21, 2025, the proxy must be signed in front of two adult witnesses, and the person you name as agent cannot serve as a witness. The statute also permits remote witnessing by audio-video technology under its requirements. We discuss your treatment wishes with you so your agent has clear guidance, and we recommend giving copies to your agent and your doctors.

Digital Assets

Email, cloud storage, online financial accounts, and social media are part of most estates today. New York governs fiduciary access to digital assets in EPTL Article 13-A (§§ 13-A-1 through 13-A-5.2), effective September 29, 2016. In practice, we address digital assets in your will, trust, and power of attorney so your fiduciaries have written direction, and we encourage you to keep an up-to-date inventory of your accounts in a secure place.

New York Estate Tax and the “Cliff”

New York has its own estate tax, separate from the federal tax, and its exclusion is much lower. For 2026:

Item (2026)	Amount
New York basic exclusion amount (dates of death Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2026)	$7,350,000
Federal basic exclusion amount	$15,000,000
Federal annual gift exclusion (per recipient)	$19,000

Under Tax Law § 952, New York's exclusion credit phases out when the taxable estate is between 100% and 105% of the basic exclusion amount. Above 105%, there is no credit at all. For a 2026 death, 105% of the exclusion is $7,717,500. An estate a few hundred thousand dollars over the exclusion can owe far more New York tax than that overage suggests. This is the “cliff.”

New York also adds certain taxable gifts made within three years of death back into the estate (Tax Law § 954(a)(3)). Under current law, that add-back sunsets for deaths on or after January 1, 2032. At the federal level, a surviving spouse can use a deceased spouse's unused exclusion only if the executor files a timely estate tax return and makes the portability election (IRC § 2010(c)(5)(A)). Families near the New York threshold should plan for both systems. Our New York estate tax cliff guide walks through examples and common planning approaches.

Keeping Your Plan Current

An estate plan should change as your life does. We suggest a review after a marriage or divorce, a birth or adoption, a move to or from New York, a significant change in your assets, the death of a named fiduciary, or a change in the law. Estate tax thresholds, Medicaid rules, and signing formalities all change over time, as the 2023 power of attorney revision and the upcoming electronic wills law show.

How We Work With You

• Consultation: we learn about your family, assets, and goals, and explain your options in plain language.
• Design: we recommend a will-based or trust-based plan and explain why.
• Drafting and review: you review drafts and ask questions before anything is signed.
• Signing: we supervise execution under the New York formalities for each document.
• Follow-through: we help with trust funding and give you instructions for storing and sharing your documents.

We serve clients in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Long Island. To talk about your estate plan, call (212) 518-3868 or request a free consultation.