Answers to the questions families actually ask

It is a conversation about your situation rather than a sales meeting. We establish what has actually happened, what documents already exist, who is involved, and what you are trying to achieve. At the end of it you should have a clear view of your options and what each would involve. If the firm is not the right fit for the matter, we will say so.

The firm has two offices: 50 Hill Park Avenue, Suite 2B in Great Neck, and Suite 801 of the Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway in Manhattan. Both are reached on the same number, (516) 584-6911. Many matters can be handled remotely, which is often easier when family members live in different states.

The firm works with families across Nassau, New York, Queens, Kings, Westchester and Suffolk Counties, and appears in the Surrogate's Courts and Supreme Courts of those counties.

No. Sending a message through this website or telephoning the office does not create an attorney-client relationship. That relationship is established only when the firm and the client have agreed to it in writing. Until then, please do not send confidential information.

Some things genuinely can be done without a lawyer. Others (a guardianship petition, a contested accounting, or a Medicaid application for someone already in a nursing home) are difficult to do well without help, and the cost of getting them wrong is high. It is reasonable to ask us directly whether your situation needs representation.

Community Medicaid pays for care delivered where someone lives, most commonly home health aide hours. Institutional Medicaid pays for nursing home care. They are assessed under different rules, which is why the first question is always what kind of care is actually needed.

No, and this is the most common misconception. Eligibility turns on what counts as an available resource, and not everything does. The purpose of planning is to reach eligibility without giving up more than the rules actually require.

Usually not, although the options are narrower than they would have been earlier. Crisis planning is a recognised part of this practice. What genuinely does harm is spending down assets on the assumption that nothing can be done, before anyone has looked at the situation.

Yes. The first appeal goes to the Managed Long Term Care plan providing the services. If the plan affirms its own decision, a fair hearing can be requested from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, heard by an Administrative Law Judge. Supporting medical evidence matters, and testimony from the treating physician tends to carry the most weight.

Immediately. The notice states the deadline, and these deadlines are short and strictly applied. Missing one can end the ability to challenge the decision at all, so the notice should be reviewed the day it arrives.

Yes. Planning within the rules the legislature wrote is a responsible way of preserving what a family has earned, much as claiming the deductions in the tax code is a responsible approach to income tax. The firm plans within the rules, not around them.

These figures change and are adjusted annually, so we will confirm the current numbers for your circumstances rather than have you rely on a published figure that may be out of date. The important point is that the limits apply to countable resources, and establishing what is countable is a large part of the work.

When an adult has lost the capacity to manage their own affairs and there is no adequate plan already in place, typically no power of attorney and no health care proxy. If those documents exist and are sufficient, guardianship may well be unnecessary.

A family member, or sometimes a close friend, petitions the court by Order to Show Cause asking to be appointed guardian of a person who can no longer make their own decisions. In New York, guardianship of an incapacitated adult is governed by Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law.

The Court Evaluator is appointed by the court, not the family, and investigates independently. They review the circumstances, medical position and capacity of the person at the center of the case, interview the relevant people, and prepare a report that is read into the record and relied on by the judge. They are described as the eyes and ears of the court.

A guardian is accountable to the court on a continuing basis and must file annual reports, including an accounting of the incapacitated person's resources that the guardian has used. That requirement exists to give the court visibility and to deter financial abuse.

Often, if there is time. A power of attorney, health care proxy, living will and HIPAA release signed while someone still has capacity can make a proceeding unnecessary. They have to be in place before capacity is lost, which is the whole argument for planning early.

That happens frequently and the proceeding can become contested. Because these disputes are usually about a family relationship as much as a legal question, mediation is sometimes a better route than litigating it, and this firm does both.

A confidential process in which a neutral mediator facilitates a conversation between parties in dispute, reflecting back what each side has said so a negotiated resolution becomes possible. The parties decide the outcome, not the mediator.

A judge and an arbitrator both decide the outcome. A mediator does neither and is completely neutral. The mediator supports the parties in reaching their own settlement, and does not advise either side; each party's own attorney does that.

Not in itself. Mediation is non-binding unless the parties settle and enter into an agreement, which is normally drafted by the attorneys representing them. Until that point either side can end the process.

Yes, subject to what the parties agree between themselves and to information that is independently discoverable. That confidentiality is why the process works; it allows people to speak frankly in a way they would not in open court.

Court-ordered mediation is usually offered as a free 90-minute period, after which the mediator may charge an hourly rate, and the parties are free to end the mediation at the close of the free period. Private mediation fees are agreed with the parties in advance. Either way it is normally a fraction of the cost of litigating the same dispute.

The parties return to court and the litigation continues. Because the process is confidential, an unsuccessful mediation does not damage anyone's position, apart from material that would have been discoverable in any event.

Estate disputes are legal and personal at the same time, and Surrogate's Court has its own procedures and culture. The large commercial dispute resolution panels have built their rosters in areas such as maritime, aviation and asbestos matters rather than trusts and estates, and their fees are high. Suzanne is appointed to the Part 146 Mediator Rosters for Surrogate's Court in New York, Westchester and Suffolk Counties specifically for this work.

It frequently does. Mediation has a record of concluding long-running family disputes the parties themselves had written off, because it deals with what people actually want to say rather than only the claims on the pleadings.

Your estate is distributed under New York's intestacy rules, which set a fixed order of who inherits regardless of what you would have wanted. A will is what replaces that default with your own decisions.

It depends on your objectives. A will alone suits many people. A trust becomes worth considering where you want to avoid probate, protect assets against long-term care costs, provide for a beneficiary who should not receive assets outright, or manage tax exposure.

Probate applies where there is a will: it is presented to the Surrogate's Court, its validity established, and the executor named in it authorised to act. Administration applies where there is no will; the intestacy rules determine who inherits and the court appoints an administrator instead.

It depends on the county's calendar, the complexity of the assets, whether tax filings are needed, and above all whether anyone objects. An uncontested estate is a very different proposition from a contested one, and we can give you a realistic estimate once we have seen the specifics.

Yes. A fiduciary who distributes before debts and taxes are addressed, mixes estate assets with their own, or fails to account properly can face personal liability. That exposure is why most executors seek representation.

Typically that the person lacked capacity to make a will, that they were unduly influenced, that the document was not executed with the formalities New York requires, or that it is a forgery. Each has to be established with evidence. Being unhappy with the outcome is not itself a ground.

Whenever something significant changes: a marriage, divorce, birth, death, a move to another state, a substantial change in assets, or a change in someone's health. Even without those, a periodic review is sensible, because the law itself changes.

Yes, but not directly, because an outright gift can disqualify them from needs-based benefits. A supplemental or special needs trust is designed to provide for that beneficiary while preserving eligibility.