Estate planning, trusts, and generational wealth.
Field notes on wills, trusts, asset protection, and tax-aware planning for founders, executives, and families across NY, NJ, and OH.
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SLAT vs. GRAT Before a Business Sale: Which Fits Your Plan?
Selling a business? Compare spouse access, exemption use and GRAT payments before transferring equity to a trust.
Estate Planning · Business Owners8 min readRead → -
Buy-Sell Agreements and Life Insurance After Connelly
Review company-owned life insurance, buy-sell funding, valuation and family liquidity after Connelly before relying on your business succession plan.
Estate Planning · Business Owners6 min readRead → -
What Happens to My Digital Assets When I Die?
Crypto, social accounts, monetized channels, and gaming assets do not pass to your family automatically. Here is what happens and how to plan for it.
Estate Planning · Digital Assets7 min readRead → -
Do I Need Estate Planning in My 20s and 30s?
You are young, healthy, and building something. Here is why founders and young professionals still need an estate plan, and the few documents that matter most.
Estate Planning · Founders & Young Professionals8 min readRead → -
Estate Planning Mistakes That Cost Families Thousands
The most expensive estate planning mistakes are also the most common, and the most avoidable. Here are the big ones and how to fix each.
Estate Planning · Mistakes Hub10 min readRead → -
How Much Does Estate Planning Cost in 2026?
Clear 2026 pricing for wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, what drives the cost, and why a flat fee beats an hourly surprise.
Estate Planning · Pricing8 min readRead →
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Small Estate Shortcuts in New Jersey, New York, and Ohio
When a family can skip full probate, when the shortcut is a trap, and what each state actually allows.
Estate Planning · Probate6 min read -
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How to Put Your House in a Trust (NJ, NY, and OH)
The actual steps to transfer a residence into a revocable trust, what it does to your mortgage and taxes, and the mistakes that undo it.
Estate Planning · Trusts7 min read -
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New Jersey Inheritance Tax: Who Pays and Who Is Exempt?
Learn which New Jersey beneficiaries are exempt, how Class C and D rates work, and why life insurance and beneficiary designations need separate review.
Estate Planning · New Jersey5 min read -
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How to Avoid Probate in Ohio
The specific Ohio tools that keep assets out of probate court — transfer-on-death designations, trust funding, and titling — and where each one fails.
Estate Planning · Ohio7 min read -
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New York Estate Tax Cliff: The 2026 Thresholds
New York's 2026 estate-tax exclusion is $7.35 million. See how the $7,717,500 cliff works and what to review before making gifts or changing a trust.
Estate Planning · New York4 min read -
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Ohio Transfer-on-Death Planning: Affidavits, Accounts and Cars
Compare Ohio TOD affidavits, vehicle titles and POD accounts. Learn when recording matters, how backup beneficiaries work and what to review after a death.
Estate Planning · Ohio5 min read -
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How Long Does Probate Take in New York?
Understand New York probate timing: court appointment, the seven-month rule, asset sales and distributions. Use a practical worksheet before your first meeting.
Estate Planning · New York5 min read -
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How Probate Works in New Jersey: Steps, Documents and Timing
Learn how New Jersey probate starts, what executors need, when notice is due and how tax waivers affect transfers. Includes a practical document checklist.
Estate Planning · Probate7 min read -
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How Much Does a Trust Cost in New Jersey?
What a revocable trust actually costs in New Jersey, what drives the number up, and why the cheapest document is usually the most expensive plan.
Estate Planning · New Jersey7 min read -
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Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trusts: How to Actually Choose
One keeps control. One trades control for protection and tax positioning. Most families end up with both — the question is what each one is doing in the plan.
Estate Planning · Trusts9 min read -
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Estate Planning for Founders and Entrepreneurs: How to Plan Before the Exit
How founders approach moving pre-IPO equity and concentrated stock out of a taxable estate before a liquidity event — GRATs, dynasty trusts, SLATs, valuation and timing, Section 1202 considerations, and the basis and consent issues that come with them.
Startups9 min read -
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Estate Planning for High-Net-Worth Families: A 2026 Strategy Guide
Estate planning for families with $10M+ in assets: what dynasty trusts, GRATs, SLATs, and ILITs actually do, the exact 2026 federal exclusion, how New York, New Jersey, and Ohio differ, and the cost-basis tradeoff of gifting during life.
Professionals9 min read -
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Should Your Life Insurance Be in a Trust?
How an irrevocable life insurance trust keeps a death benefit out of your taxable estate, and the rules that make or break it.
Estate Planning · Advanced7 min read -
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How to Fund a Revocable Living Trust: An Asset Checklist
Signed a trust but still hold assets in your own name? Review deeds, accounts, business interests and beneficiary forms to find the funding work still needed.
Estate Planning · Trusts6 min read -
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What to Bring to Your First Estate Planning Meeting
The short list that turns a first meeting into real progress instead of an intake interview.
Estate Planning · Getting Started5 min read -
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Does a Beneficiary Designation Override a Will?
Usually, but exceptions matter. Compare retirement accounts, life insurance and bank accounts, including New York trust-account rules and divorce issues.
Estate Planning · Trusts6 min read -
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Named as Executor: What to Do in the First 90 Days
The early decisions an executor makes are the ones that create or prevent personal liability. Here is the sequence we walk fiduciaries through.
Estate Planning · Probate9 min read -
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How to Choose an Estate Planning Attorney
Nine questions that separate a real planning engagement from a document-assembly transaction.
Estate Planning · Getting Started6 min read -
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What Probate Actually Costs in New Jersey, New York, and Ohio
Probate cost is rarely a single line item. It is filing fees, commissions, professional fees, and delay — and the three states we practice in price it very differently.
Estate Planning · Probate9 min read -
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You Own Property in Two States. Now What?
Why out-of-state real estate is the single most common reason a family needs a trust, and how ancillary probate actually plays out.
Estate Planning · Multi-State6 min read -
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Choosing a Guardian for Minor Children — and Separating Money From Care
The person who raises your children does not have to be the person who manages their money. Most plans are stronger when those roles are split.
Estate Planning · Families8 min read -
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Digital Assets, Crypto, and Online Accounts in Your Estate Plan
Self-custodied crypto is lost without access. Cloud accounts, domains, and monetized channels need authority language your fiduciary can actually use.
Estate Planning · Digital Assets8 min read -
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Nine Events That Should Trigger an Estate Plan Review
Plans do not fail because they were drafted badly. They fail because life moved and the documents did not.
Estate Planning · Reviews8 min read -
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What Happens If You Die Without a Will in New Jersey, New York, or Ohio
Intestacy is not "everything goes to my spouse." Each of our three states has its own distribution formula, its own court process, and its own default guardianship outcome.
Estate Planning · Wills10 min read -
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Concentrated Stock, RSUs, and Deferred Comp: Estate Planning for Executives
Equity compensation creates estate planning problems that cash does not: vesting schedules, trading windows, deferred comp elections, and a balance sheet dominated by one ticker.
Estate Planning · Executives9 min read -
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Estate Planning for Creators: Who Controls the Brand, the Channels, and the Catalog
A creator business is mostly intangible — channels, handles, trademarks, catalogs, and contracts. Here is how to make sure those assets pass to someone who can actually operate them.
Estate Planning · Creators8 min read -
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How to Choose a Trustee — and When to Split the Job
The trustee decision determines whether your trust works. Here is how to think about family versus institutional trustees, co-trustees, and the trust protector role.
Estate Planning · Trusts8 min read -
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Powers of Attorney and Healthcare Directives: The Documents That Matter While You Are Alive
A will does nothing until you die. The incapacity documents — financial power of attorney, healthcare proxy or agent appointment, living will, HIPAA authorization — carry the weight in between.
Estate Planning · Core Documents8 min read -
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SLATs for Married Couples: Using Exemption Without Giving Up Access
A spousal lifetime access trust moves assets out of the taxable estate while the other spouse retains an indirect path to them. Powerful, and unforgiving if built carelessly.
Estate Planning · Advanced10 min read
The Estate Planning Checklist
A practical checklist covering documents, titling, beneficiary designations, and the funding steps most plans skip. Written for NY, NJ, and OH families.
Educational material only — not legal advice. Requesting the guide does not create an attorney-client relationship. We do not sell or share your email.