Estate planning and estate settlement:
Getting Started

Estate Planning: Getting Started

To print a confidential estate planning questionnaire, click on your marital status below:

Married - PDF 84k

Single - PDF 92k

Living together - not married - PDF 85k

Same sex couple - PDF 85k

Please call our office to schedule a convenient time to meet with either Barbara Cane or Courtney Boniface, our estate planning attorneys. We will follow up our first meeting with:

• a written summary of your estate planning issues
• our recommendations of how to meet your goals
• a quote of the fee to carry out the plan.

The fee for the background analysis, initial meeting, and written proposal is $350.

Estate Settlement: Getting Started

The goal of our first meeting is to determine the facts of the estate settlement case:

• Who died?
• What steps need to be taken immediately?
• Did he or she leave a will or trust stating who should benefit from the assets?
• What assets did the decedent own?
• How were the assets titled and how do they flow?
• Will there have to be a probate proceeding?
• Will administration be necessary?
• Do taxes have to be paid - New York State estate tax, federal estate tax?
• Is controversy likely?
• What steps need to be taken to protect the assets?

Please call the office to make an appointment with our estate settlement lawyers, Barbara Cane or Courtney Boniface. It is helpful if you bring basic information with you:

• death certificate
• the will, if there is one (but do not remove the staples!)
• information about assets
• information about the family.

For an estate assets worksheet, click here.