Naming Your Executor

The Executor

Once a will is put in place does not mean your final terms will automatically be carried out. You have to appoint what is called an “executor”. This is the most important individual in your after-life. Their sole duty is to carry out all of your wishes in the will. This individual has the legal authority to supervise and distribute your assets, represent and speak on behalf of the estate, and is usually in charge of dealing with the filing of taxes and other administrative duties.

What Does The Executor Do

Most people are not completely certain what some of the day to day tasks are for an executor. The following is a brief description of what their job actually entails:

• Oversee the will property during the process of probate. Typically various administrative steps need to be taken in Surrogate’s Court.
• File various legal documents along with the will at Surrogate’s Court.
• Establish a bank account for the estate.
• File the appropriate tax returns for the decedent. This can be the 1040, 1041, sales and use tax returns for their business, various state tax returns, etc.
• Manage and supervise the property within the decedents estate during the distribution step.

Who You Should Choose

Who should be the executor? Generally it should be someone you trust. Take into account where they live. States and jurisdictions require various requirements for an executor located in an out of state location. Sometimes the best executor for your estate is your New York Estate Planning Lawyer. A few reasons for this:

• They are less likely to swindle your estate for money because they are obliged to be ethical and moral as required by their State Bar. There are set guidelines for what are considered professional standards.
• They are familiar with the probate process.
• They are familiar with how estate tax and gift tax work.
• They are most likely the individuals who created your will.

It is always a good idea to appoint a successor executor as well in the event something happens to your primary executor. You have the option to appoint several executors (i.e.: you have several siblings and you don’t want to hurt family chemistry by appointing only one sibling).

Picking your executor is a serious decision to be made. You must also be aware an executor will not be doing all of this for free. You want to establish the form of compensation with your appointed executor in order for them not to be completely burdened by the tasks you leave behind.

New York Estate Lawyer

The founder of Mishiyeva Law, PLLC., Kamilla Mishiyeva, Esq., is available to act as an executor for an individual’s estate. The best executor you can equip yourself with is your trusted probate attorney. Headquartered in the Financial District of Manhattan, Kamilla Mishiyeva, Esq., is ready to provide the city of New York estate planning and probate assistance.

Estate Planning For Wall Street Executives

Are you a financier in downtown Manhattan? Are you a stock broker, CPA, hedge fund manager, or a financial analyst? Business men and women working on Wall Street know the ins and outs of securities whether we are discussing stocks yielding high dividends, treasury bonds, or exchange traded funds. As a Wall Street Estate Lawyer, I have come to the realization these brilliant individuals lack some of the basic tenants when it comes to estate planning and probate. I find this to be a crucial deficiency in their plethora of knowledge of all things dealing with finance. Why? Proper estate planning will save you a high tax bill on the day of your death. When comparing what your inheritance tax will be if you utilize a trust, the difference in the tax owed is significant if you were to not hire an estate planning lawyer.

What happens when you put money, securities, and other property into a trust? You no longer own it. The trust owns it. How can you owe inheritance tax on something you don’t own? Exactly. You typically don’t owe estate tax on what is in the trust.

A trust is a very simple concept – it is a legal arrangement in which you put assets into the vehicle in order for another party to manage it. The other party manages the funds in order to provide your beneficiary the assets either in increments or all at once. We call this third party the trustee. They manage the trust and all of its funds. The beneficiary could be your children or whoever it is you choose to be so they may benefit from all the assets put into the trust. You have full control of how the trust operates. You create the terms. You can decide at what age your beneficiary's are allowed to be provided the funds in the trust. You can even go so far as to say they have to accomplish certain tasks to be eligible to receive the property within the trusts.

We highly recommend you contact a Wall Street Estate Lawyer to get insight on all the complexities of how trusts work. A New York Estate Planning Lawyer is essential when you are looking to establish a trust as well as getting an understanding of the probate process. Trusts come in all shapes and sizes. You have Bare Trusts, Discretionary Trusts, Mixed Trusts, Non-resident Trusts, and many more. They all apply to different circumstance you find yourself in.

What types of property can be put into a trust? Real estate such as co-ops, condos, and houses, securities from common stock to preferred stock, AAA rated Bonds, jewelry, art, etc. Some items may be more difficult to put into a trust then others.

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Kamilla Mishiyeva, Esq., is a New York State Bar admitted attorney with experience in  working with guardianships, trusts, wills, probate proceedings and litigation, administration, and estate planning. If you are in New York and specifically the downtown Manhattan Wall Street area, do a service to yourself and contact this attorney with any questions you may have on how to properly manage your assets in such a way that your loved ones will be comfortable at the time of your death.

Tax Implications on Retirement Plans

Estate Tax

All of those retirement plans that you are maintaining (IRA, 401(k), 403(b), Roth IRA) are potentially exposed to taxes at the time of your death. According to Federal Income Tax Law, federal estate tax may be due on the remaining balances in your retirement accounts when you pass away. Regardless if the beneficiary decides to withdraw the entire amount in one lump sum or will take out timely payments, the sum in these accounts are subject to estate tax. What the IRS looks at is the dollar value of the retirement account at the time of death. These retirement accounts are automatically part of your estate as soon as you become deceased.  Keep in mind most middle class individuals have nothing to worry about when it comes to the estate tax implications of retirement accounts. The beneficiary would have to receive an estate exceeding $5.43 million per individual to have the estate be subject to estate tax.

Income Tax

As the beneficiary, you are certainly subject to income tax. Just to quiz you on your knowledge of retirement accounts, which retirement account do you think you would need to pay income tax on as the beneficiary of the account, a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA? Remember, with a traditional IRA, it is tax deferred where is with the Roth IRA, you pay tax up front. The answer is traditional IRA. Just as how it is subject to income tax for the individual when withdrawals are made, it is now too subject to income to withdrawals from the beneficiary. Since the Roth already had its funds taxed when first deposited, you would be receiving tax free payments.

Keep a few things in mind: As the surviving spouse, you can roll over the funds into your own personal retirement account to avoid taxation. The funds would be treated as if they were originally yours. So as an example, if you were the beneficiary of your spouses traditional IRA, it would be rolled over into your own personal IRA and it would only be subject to federal income tax when you start withdrawing the funds. While on the subject of the surviving spouse, they are automatically the beneficiary of the retirement accounts of their spouse unless they choose to waive that right.

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Kamilla Mishiyeva, Esq., is an estate planning and probate lawyer in New York City. She has locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. As a probate and an estate planning attorney, her knowledge has to go beyond the law. Her awareness of tax planning and financial investing are crucial in giving her clients an edge when it comes to truly increasing their wealth. You can visit her website at http://www.NYCProbateLawyer.com/ today should you have any need for assistance with probate litigation, probate administration, estate planning, and trust and will drafting.

Probate In A Nutshell

What happens when your estate goes into probate? Probate at its most basic level is there to do two things and that is pay off the debts that you have left behind and transfer all of your assets to your beneficiaries.

In New York, New York Surrogate's Court will oversee the probate process. Surrogate's Court in general does the following:

• Approve the accounting for the decedents property and all of their assets
• Makes sure to notify that the decedent has in fact passed. They inform creditors, heirs, and other relevant parties.
• Approve the distribution of the estate and deal with some of the peripheral costs (such as taxes)

Usually, your last will and testament will specify who your representative will be. However the court may have to decide who the representative will be if any of the following issues occur:

• You Pass away without a will in place
• Your will does not specify who your personal representative will be
• Your original representative as specified in your will is in no condition to act on behalf of your estate due to sickness or death

Depending on which state you are in, a notice in the Newspaper may need to be issued announcing the death of the decedent. 

At this point, once the administrative aspect of probate is complete, the estate will now need to distribute its assets to both creditors and beneficiaries. 

Creditors typically get their share based on the following order:

• All estate administration expenses : appraisal fees, legal fees
• Family Allowances
• Funeral fees and expenses
• Taxes and debt including credit cards and  mortgages
• All other remaining claims against the estate

Whatever happens to be left after the creditors are paid off, the beneficiaries are then due for their cut.

It is certainly recommended that you retain a competent New York City Estate Planning Lawyer to help you throughout the legal process. It is important to know all of the probate essentials and how probate proceedings work. Kamilla Mishiyeva, Esq., is an estate and probate lawyer in New York catering to clients throughout the five boroughs of New York. With offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn, she is always doing her duty in defending estates from claims, assisting with will contests, and dealing with all administrative aspects of probate cases.

The Traditional IRA

If you are under the age of 70 1/2 and you have earned income (salary wages, self-employment income,  etc.), you can open an IRA (Individual Retirement Account). What is the main benefit of an IRA? All the money you put into it including your principal investment plus the additional capital appreciation and interest income will be tax deferred. That means you only pay taxes when you are ready to withdraw the funds during your retirement. Keep in mind if you withdraw your funds (also called distributions) prior to age  59 1/2, you will incur a 10% penalty plus an additional income tax on the amount withdrawn.

Why would an individual want to invest into an IRA as opposed to a Roth IRA where you are not taxed at retirement? Well, suppose the individual in question sat down with their financial adviser or New York estate planning lawyer and they calculated the possible tax bracket of this individual at age 60. They estimated that the only income this individual will truly be receiving is their social security income and little to no peripheral income. In this scenario, because it appears they will be in a very low tax bracket, it is very lucrative to invest aggressively into a Traditional IRA.

Per the IRS, the current maximum contribution that is allowable into a Traditional IRA is $5,500 ($6,500 if over 50 years of age). Using this very handy IRA calculator, let's calculate how much you can possibly earn with an investment of $5,500 a year including the additional $6,500 you can apply from age 50 and up. Say you start at 30 until age 65, you will have contributed a total of $207,500. How much money would you come out with at retirement? $840, 412. That is a significant jump from your original contribution. What is the moral of the story? Contact your local New York Estate Planning Attorney asap and start discussing as to how you can begin investing into a Traditional IRA.

The Roth IRA

The Roth IRA is just one of several retirement accounts available to help you in securing your financial future.

First, let’s mention some of the more important details of the Roth IRA:

• Your contribution into the Roth IRA is post-tax money. You already paid income tax on the amount you are contributing (traditional IRA contributions are tax deductible and are taxed at the back-end when you withdraw your funds)
• If you withdraw your income from a Roth IRA within 5 years of setting up the account, you will have to pay taxes and a 10% penalty
• If you have not reached the age of 59 1/2 , you will have to pay taxes on the portion you are attempting to withdraw that represents earnings from your Roth contribution (dividends, interest, and capital appreciation)

Who can truly benefit from a Roth IRA? Well, I am of the opinion that if you can max out on putting your money into all the various retirement accounts out there, you should certainly do so. If you are limited to which retirement account you may finance, then I would consider what you believe your income will be when you hit your 60s.

Government employees typically earn a pension after a certain number of years working for their respective agencies. Depending on how the pension is structured, government employees can receive anywhere from 60%-85% of their highest income level at retirement until their death. A Roth IRA in this scenario will be ideal. In this scenario, you will be earning a fairly decent income which will result in a high tax bracket. The Roth will allow you to make withdrawals on a tax-free basis without being affected by your pension income.

The Roth IRA is beneficial for any individual who is of the impression they will make a reasonable amount of income late into their lives. If interested in being provided with an analysis on what the best retirement program may be for you, consider contacting a New York Estate Lawyer. Estate Lawyers can also provide you with other financial instruments to help you in controlling your financial assets such as drafting wills and trusts.