Comprehensive and Sophisticated Estate Tax Planning and Trusts and Estates Administration Services
Trevett Cristo Salzer & Andolina P.C. provides a complete range of services to help you meet your estate planning and trusts and estates administration needs. We offer sophisticated tax planning to help your surviving spouse, children and heirs avoid the loss of significant assets to estate taxes upon your death.
Basic Estate Planning Instruments
The basic legal tools required to preserve your assets for future generations are wills and trusts. Without a legal will, your family will put your estate plan into the hands of a probate judge to decide on the distribution of your assets as provided under state law. To avoid this result, Wills must be legally drafted and kept up to date. No matter how old you are or what stage of life you are in, it is important to make sure your will is current and your family is aware of your final wishes.
By establishing a trust, you have the right to see your family assets distributed to your heirs and beneficiaries under conditions that you determine, without the need for lengthy and expensive probate court proceedings. Trusts can be used to establish regular distributions to members of your family with special needs, for educational purposes or to support our favorite charitable organization.
Advance Health Care Directives
In addition to estate planning tools for financial purposes, we can also help you with your advance heath care directives, living wills and heath care proxies. Make sure your family knows exactly what you want for health care treatment at the end of your life.
Advance Financial Directives
If something happens to you while still living and you no longer have capacity to make your own financial decisions, we can help you with your power of attorney. An additional rider may be added to that document to allow your agent to make gifts pursuant to a plan put in place by you before your incapacity.
Probate, Estate Administration and Contested Will Litigation
Upon death, a person's Will must be "probated" to appoint an executor and to distribute the estate assets according to the terms of the Will. An administrator performs the same functions when a person dies without a Will. We offer experienced legal counsel to help executors and administrators finalize the details of the decedent's estate. This includes administering the estate in probate court, litigating Will and trust disputes, and completing the final affairs of the estate such a dealing with creditors and finalizing contractual arrangements.
Trust Administration and Termination
In certain cases, an annual accounting may be required for any trust that you created or for which you are acting as trustee. We can assist you with those annual accountings, and we can also assist you with any settlement proceedings to terminate such trust.
Medicaid Planning
The cost of long-term health care and residential care services can reduce a family's savings to nothing. There are legal processes available to help your family protect assets against the high cost of nursing home care. Through strategic Medicaid planning, started early enough, you can protect your assets from the state and federal Medicaid "look back" to determine the amount you must pay for services. We know Medicaid planning strategies that can help you avoid the devastating cost of long-term care, leaving your assets where you want them - in your family's hands.
Florida Trusts and Estates Matters
Many of our clients spend a significant amount of time each year enjoying the sunshine in Florida and in other southern states. A few of our partners are admitted to practice in the State of Florida, and have been involved with trusts and estates matters in that state over the years. We stand ready to assist you with these types of matters that arise in Florida, and many times some or all of this assistance takes place solely from our New York office without the need to travel to Florida.
Partners practicing principally in the areas of estate planning and New York probate law:
From offices in Rochester, we represent clients throughout upstate and Western New York.Contact our office at 585-454-2181 to schedule a consultation with an experienced Rochester business transactions attorney.
