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Law Offices of Roman Aminov

Law Offices of Roman Aminov 147-17 Union Turnpike Flushing, NY 11367 (347) 766-2685

Services

  • Real Estate Law
  • Medicaid Planning
  • Estate Planning
  • Probate and Estate Administration

About

Welcome to the Law Offices of Roman Aminov directory page on the Brownstoner. If you need any help with elder law, estate planning, the probate process, real estate, or a will you can call them today at (347) 766-2685 to set up a free consultation. They have office several offices in NY that you may visit. One is in Flushing, Queens and the other is in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Call us today and learn about our estate planning & probate attorney services.

We will now share with you some great information for people who are thinking about writing a will and don't know the first thing about what they need to do.

Basics of Estate Planning and Why You Should Care:

The common misconception amongst people is that they don’t need to bother ever sitting down with an estate planning lawyer since they don’t own an estate. Either that or they don’t think their estate is valuable enough to worry about estate taxation.

The main problem here is the definition of ‘estate’. Your estate is comprised of all of your assets under your name including, but not limited to:

Cash

Real estate

Death benefits from life insurance

Personal belongings and property

Basically, anything that you own that has some value and can be passed on to somebody at the event of your death. In short, that is an estate. One more thing that many people don’t know is that they already have an estate plan even if they never took the time to write their will as the state provides a default one. When someone neglects to write a legal will , their case will fall under a probate process called estate administration at time of passing. If your loved one passed away without leaving a will things will probably get complicated. It is not a good idea to wait around and one should contact a professional estate lawyer right away.
Who Really Needs Estate Panning?
Everybody needs estate planning services. A legal professional should be contacted when you decide to make the move towards constructing a will. People work all through their life to meet their life goals which usually include wealth accumulation, providing properly for their children, and saving money for retirement.

You should get proper estate planning if you:

Want your estate distributed according to your wishes rather than following statutory procedures and default probate processes.

You have valuable assets that make you vulnerable to high estate taxes

Have heirs that would need financial assistance at the time of your death

In simple terms, an estate plan from a good attorney will cover the preservation and distribution of your estate to the people or organizations of your choosing.

How Should I begin?

As we mentioned best way would be to contact an estate planning lawyer within your area. This is very important as the probate process in Queens, NY for example (which is where I practice) is very different from the probate process in any other state. If, however, you’d like to take care of it on your own, you will need at least a basic understanding of the following:

How to write a will and understanding the limitations

Knowledge of estate tax system

Laws related to estate tax

Death tax

Gift tax on generosity

Trusts

What Is A Will?

This is a personal declaration of your wishes and intentions concerning your assets and properties at the event of your death. You need to have one ready now. A will can be changed any time since it is only legally binding at the time of your death or if you ever reach a state of mental incapacity.

Having a will ready gives you greater control of what happens to your estate once you have died. With a will, you have the right to choose your executor, the one responsible for carrying out your wishes. If for any reason a loved one died without leaving a will you will need to contact legal representation right away.

What else is covered in a will?

Somebody who dies and does not leave a will dies “intestate.” Anybody who dies intestate leaves behind troublesome financial burdens for their heirs and will have no say about how portions of their estate are distributed amongst the heirs.

Within your will, you can:

Pick your executor

Appoint guardians for your children

Distribute your assets to the beneficiaries of your choice

Keep estate tax to a minimum

Finishing a will usually gives one peace of mind and a certain sense of closure. Only writing a will with an estate planning attorney is the only way to assure that the will will be upheld legally for generations to come.

What are Trusts?

Living trusts are the part of estate planning that gives you control over how you’d like your assets managed and spread among beneficiaries. You may name individuals or organizations to take care of managing assets within your trust. Trustees will have effective control at the time of your death and will typically take care of your dependents.

In a way, trusts are more convenient and desirable than wills since they don’t need to be processed within court which means fewer costs and fewer delays. There are also some ways you can work around high taxes regarding inheritance.

There are many more things to take into consideration when taking care of estate planning. In essence, it gives you more control over everything you have accumulated through your life and legally enforces your wishes. For more information, consult a NYC legal representative to get a clearer idea of your options.

Buying Real Estate from Family Members: A Lawyer’s Perspective:

Though it isn’t too common, some people choose to buy homes from their family members. Say for example, Jack wants to buy his mother’s house. The mortgage is almost paid off and his mom is okay with taking monthly payments making it unnecessary to get a loan.

It seems like an ideal transaction but there are countless ways this can go wrong and can even lead to big legal fees along with damaged relationships. Here are a certain issues you should definitely consider should you ever find yourself in a situation similar to Jack’s.



1. Where does your parent/relative stay?


Let’s use Jack’s example again, if his mother is selling him her house, where will she stay after? Does she live with Jack’s family or does she move out and find her own place. If she stays with Jack, the living arrangements must be discussed ahead of time. Something like this can get incredibly complicated in a short amount of time. The mother can speak to a qualified real estate legal representative and actually arrange a contractor that would give her legal rights to live in the home.



2. Handle the transaction professionally



This is more of a safety precaution; since the closer you are to your relative, the bigger the potential damage to your relationship should things turn sour. Your attorney must make sure that all Real Estate legal contracts should be indisputable so that it cannot be used as leverage in any arguments.

Make sure you use a deed of trust, a promissory note, and a third party escrow agency to handle payments between you and your relative.

Why go through all that? So you insure that all payments and its amounts are clear and you know where the money is going and what it’s paying for. Both parties will know what was used for interest, how much went to the principal, and how much was amortized.



3. Put it all in writing


Make sure all the details of the transaction are noted down in your contract. It pays to make everything as clear as day when it comes to massive transactions like this. Include your payment plan. Don’t take riskier mortgage plans just because you are dealing with family.



4. Plan ahead. Even for unlikely scenarios


Since you’re dealing with a family member, you’ll want to protect them too. Should you ever decide to legally sell your real estate, be sure to include a provision stating that your relative should be paid off completely. You don’t want a family member having to deal with strangers in a contractual relationship after selling you their home.



5. Pay what is due


A number of people think that they can get a really good deal on a real estate closing by working out a deal with relatives. To make sure there are no bad feelings, be sure to pay the market rate and include a fixed payment plan.

You’ll also want to do this so that your relative isn’t taxed on the difference by the IRS for gift tax. Annual gifts to relatives can be done but it becomes complicated and tricky to manage making it not worth either of your time.

Make sure this is what you really want to do since you will be putting your relationship on the line. If handled properly, everything should proceed smoothly without any damage falling on your relationship.



The Law Offices of Roman Aminov is the Brooklyn and Queens estate lawyer that you can trust. So if you want an elder lawyer in Flushing or in any of it's neighboring towns like Forest Hills and Kew Gardens we recommend you set up an appointment and visit our Flushing office. With the recent boom in real estate in Forest Hills area (due to it's proximity to Manhattan) many residents are looking for a Forest Hills estate attorney to help them protect their assets. Here is the contact information for our Flushing office: Law Offices Of Roman Aminov 147-17 Union Turnpike, Flushing, NY 11367(347) 766-2685. Live in Brooklyn and need your estate planned? Many residents in this area are senior citizens who need an estate lawyer in Brooklyn as soon as possible so that they can plan their asset distribution and estate before it is too late. If you are in the golden years or just need a Brooklyn based will attorney visit our Flatbush office today at: Law Offices Of Roman Aminov Brooklyn 1600 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11230 (347) 766-2682.

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