Estate Settlement During COVID-19

Life can change in an instant, as recently evidenced by the world-wide pandemic.

As of June 12, 2020, one hundred fifteen thousand people have lost their lives in the United States, over twenty-four thousand of those were in New York.

While on mandatory shut down, courts across New York State were forced to temporarily ban the filing of new cases and were only accepting emergency filings.

For the surrogate’s court, the court that handles estate and trust settlements, that meant if someone passed away during this time, the court could not accept the filing of a new estate in order to probate a Will and appoint an Executor or appoint an Administrator (when someone passes away without a Will). This setback placed an emotional burden upon those people who could start the process of collecting assets and paying expenses for the deceased person.

One of the rewarding aspects of our work is to help families or friends through the death of a loved one by assisting in starting the process with the courts called estate settlement.

One way to avoid court involvement after the death of a loved is to create a Trust removing assets in your individual name from your estate, with a goal of eliminating the need for court involvement. A Trust can also help your estate plan in other ways, such as preparing for the possibility of Medicaid if you need to go into a nursing home. If you are interested in learning more about how a Trust can protect you and provide for your beneficiaries without the need for court involvement, please contact us today!