When a person passes who has a Will, in order for the Will to take effect, it must be probated. Probate is the process of filing the Will with the court, obtaining the authority for the Executor (male) or Executrix (female) to implement the last wishes of the deceased person as specified in the Will. As both an attorney and CPA, my knowledge of law and finance proves helpful in analyzing a Will and implementing the wishes of the deceased person. There may be taxes due on the value of estate assets whether or not some or all of those assets passed by operation of law rather than by Will.

When my father passed away, I was the one who dealt with determining what life insurance policies were in place, filing claims to obtain the life insurance policy benefits, determining what and where all the assets were, setting up and funding the trusts created under his Will, maintaining accounting records to be used to file a final short-year income tax return, the estate tax return, and tax returns for the trusts. Although I had all the background necessary to do this, it was not a simple process. I can assist you to do the same.

If a person passes and the person did not have a Will or the Will is not probated (filed with the court), the state that the deceased person lived in specifies (through its intestacy statute) who gets what assets and in what percentage.

I can assist you with probating a Will of a deceased person in New York or Florida and all related issues such as accounting for all assets and insuring that title to those assets are properly set.