A complete New York estate plan is built on four core documents that work together: a last will and testament, one or more trusts, a durable power of attorney, and a health care proxy. The will directs who inherits your property, a trust can help you avoid probate or protect assets, the power of attorney lets someone manage your finances
If you are new to estate planning, here is the reassuring short answer first: for deaths in 2026, New York lets each person pass up to $7,350,000 to heirs free of New York estate tax. That is a generous threshold, and most New York families fall comfortably under it. The catch — and the reason this guide exists — is
Medicaid planning is the process of legally arranging your assets so that, if you ever need long-term nursing-home care, you can qualify for Medicaid without spending your entire life savings first — and in New York, the single most important rule to understand is the 5-year look-back. When you apply for institutional (nursing-home) Medicaid, the state reviews the 60 months
You include digital assets in your New York estate plan the same careful way you include a house or a bank account: by making a clear inventory of what you own online, naming a trusted person to manage it, and giving that person legal authority through the core documents that make up a complete plan — your will, your trust(s),
If you are looking for one simple rule, here it is: review your New York estate plan every three to five years, and whenever a major life event happens — a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, a big move, or a major change in your finances. An estate plan is not a “set it and forget it” document.
If you are starting your estate plan for the first time, here is the short answer: a complete New York estate plan in 2026 comes down to four coordinated documents — a last will and testament, one or more trusts where appropriate, a durable power of attorney, and a health care proxy — assembled so they work together rather than
A cost-and-timeline guide to cross-border estate planning for New York immigrant families with overseas assets, non-citizen spouses, and foreign heirs.