Binghamton Law Blog: Covering Topics from Personal Injury to Estate Planning Law

Estate planning can be complicated, and a process that is best done with the support and guidance of legal counsel. To underscore the fact that wills are not to be regarded as DIY projects, New York residents can look at a case in another state in which a woman had only a handwritten will when she died. The document stated that 65% of her estate must go to her life partner and the balance to an aunt.

However, the aunt was already deceased at the time of the woman's passing, and the will had no instructions for what must be done with the remaining 35%. The surviving life partner petitioned for the entire estate when the will was in probate, but the testator's half-brother filed a separate petition, claiming that intestacy laws made him the legal heir of the 35%. Although the probate court agreed with the latter request, the court of appeals did not, and the probate court's judgment was reversed.

Investors in New York might know how they would prefer to have their assets distributed after death, but they might have questions about the most appropriate way to plan it. One way to do this is by adding trusts to their estate planning, similar to adding a specialized tool to a toolbox for a specific purpose. The specifications of an irrevocable trust cannot be modified, but a revocable trust can be modified as often as the grantor wants during his or her lifetime.

Trusts can be established for specific purposes, such as special needs trusts, generation-skipping trusts, asset protection trusts, and credit shelter trusts. Although life insurance, property, securities and nonretirement bank accounts can be used to fund a trust, retirement accounts cannot be owned by a trust. Irrevocable trusts render certain assets untouchable, providing asset protection. Revocable trusts can avoid probate, and the grantor can appoint an entity or person to manage the funds.

The last thing any New Yorker who needs medical treatment would want is being misdiagnosed by a doctor. However, as two recent studies and several in the past decade found, a significant percentage of medical malpractice claims against physicians involved misdiagnosis. Analysis of claims showed that the failure to assess the entire clinical picture by analyzing all of the available information appears to be the primary cause of diagnostic errors. This includes the patient's medical history, the symptoms he or she reported, the physical examination and all test results.

One recent study reports that medical malpractice claims filed from 2013 through 2017 showed that almost half of them were diagnosis-related. Nearly half of those cases resulted in the death of the patient. The second study by another malpractice carrier looked at malpractice claims involving the treatment of children from 2008 through 2017, and the outcome showed 38 percent of those claims resulted from misdiagnosis.

With a newborn child in the house, changes to familiar dynamic are inevitable. While new parents adjust to those changes, they might neglect to consider the changes this new member of the family brings to their legacy planning. Life is unpredictable, and lives can be lost in split seconds. New York parents might be wise to modify existing documents such as wills and beneficiaries and appoint guardians as soon as possible after such an event.

Choosing a guardian is a crucial step that needs careful consideration. It is essential to select a person who is not only willing and able to do it but also someone who will provide loving care and always act in the best interests of the child in the event of the death of both parents. Does this person live by the same values and standards as the parents?