Former New York Gov. Hugh Carey has died at the age of 92 on August 7, 2011. Carey served as New York’s 51st governor from 1975 through 1982. Perhaps Carey is most remembered for leading the rescue effort that brought New York City back from the brink of bankruptcy during its 1975 fiscal crisis. Hugh Leo Carey married the late Helen Owen Carey on Feb. 27, 1947, in The Lady Chapel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the two raised 14 children together. Carey is survived by 11 children, 25 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.  Full article.

The new 2011 estate tax laws took effect January 1, 2011.  Estates with a taxable estate over $5 million will have to pay taxes. All estates under $5 million will be exempt. There is also an advantageous “stepped - up basis” in all inherited property. Stepped - up tax basis means that if you inherit property, the new tax basis of the property is its value on the date of death. As a result, if you inherit property and later sell it, you will pay capital gains tax based only on the value of the property as of the date of death.   

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.             

The estate of late actress Anna Nicole Smith has lost a Supreme Court battle over her deceased husband’s fortune. The issue to decide at court was whether Smith’s estate received a proper hearing in federal courts, and whether state probate courts should be the proper venue for hearing such cases. J. Howard Marshall was married to Smith for 14 months before he died in 1995. His will left nearly all assets and trust to his son from a previous marriage, E. Pierce Marshall. He left Smith almost nothing. She later sued and claimed her deceased husband had promised to give her more than $300 million. Read: http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/06/23/scotus.anna.nicole.smith/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Len Leeds is a senior partner at Leeds Morelli and Brown, PC who represented Smith in life and during the battle over her deceased husband’s estate.  If a decedent dies without a last will and testament, the estate is subject to intestacy by the New York Surrogate Court. Under the Estate Planning and Trusts Law (EPTL) 4.1-1, when a person dies without a last will and testament, all distribution, debts, administration expenses and reasonable funeral expenses will be deducted but all estate taxes shall be disregarded. Distribution of the estate shall then be as follows. If a decedent is survived by a spouse and issue, then fifty thousand dollars and one-half of the residue estate will go to the spouse, and the balance remaining will pass to the children. If a spouse dies without children, then the whole estate passes to the spouse. If there is no spouse and no children, then the whole estate will pass to one or both surviving parents. See: http://www.jdbar.com/Statutes/eptl-4-1_1.html

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have extensive experience with respect to all areas of estate planning and protective estate measures in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as nationally. For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

Ryan Dunn, star of MTV’s “Jackass,” has died in a car crash. Dunn was 34 years old. A police report indicated that Dunn was most likely speeding in his 2007 Porsche 911 GT3, which was destroyed in the wreck. “Upon arrival, police located one vehicle in the road and in the woods that was fully engulfed in flames.” There was no indication at the time that a “DUI” was to blame. Full article.

After an accident takes a young person’s life, one is reminded that life is precious. It is important to consider proper estate planning so that affairs are in order. Proper estate planning includes having a valid will, health care proxy, living will, and power of attorney. A Last Will and Testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death.  A Health Care Proxy is a document which allows you to designate a person to make health care decisions for you if you cannot make them for yourself. These decisions can involve the management of your health care in order to keep you healthy. These decisions can also involve the termination of life support. A Living Will is a written statement that expresses your desires with regard to health care treatment if you become mentally incapable and/or physically incapable of expressing those desires. It may include instructions concerning the termination of life support. It is important to consider these documents when planning your estate. No estate is so small as to be excluded from estate planning.

For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

Wellington R. Burt was a rich timber baron from Saginaw, Michigan. Burt died in 1919 with a multi-million-dollar fortune, which was one of America’s largest at the time.  Instead of leaving his fortune to his children, Burt planned for his fortune to be distributed 21 years after his grand-children’s death.  Now that it’s 21 years since the death of the last grandchild, the fortune is finally being turned over to 12 of Burt’s heirs, including three great-grandchildren, seven great-great grandchildren and another great-great-great grandchild.  The fortune is valued at more than $100 million. Full article.

The Government’s estate tax is designed to tax assets when they are passed from one generation to another, such as a parent to a child.  For individuals that have a large estate, paying taxes at each generation can be extremely costly and often times can deplete an estate.  A solution is to establish a Generation Skipping Trust.  This type of trust effectively transfers assets from the grantor’s estate to his or her grandchildren, the children of the grantor never take title to the assets. This allows the grantor to avoid the estate taxes that would apply if the assets were transferred to his or her children first. Generation skipping trusts can still be used to provide some financial benefits to a grantor’s children, however, because any income generated by the trust’s assets can be made accessible to the grantor’s children while still leaving the assets in trust for his or her grandchildren.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

Pietro Ferrero, the CEO of the Ferrero Group holding company that produces Nutella and Tic Tac mints has died at the age of 47 after falling from a bicycle while on a business trip in South Africa. The decedent was an avid cyclist who was riding a bike on a training run on a road in Cape Town at the time of his fall.  Ferrero’s namesake comes from the former CEO’s grandfather named Pietro who started the company in 1942.  Since it was hard to obtain ingredients for candy during World War II, Pietro Ferrero decided used hazelnuts, which were in abundance in his region of Piedmont, Italy and invented Nutella by making a sweet paste from the nut.  The company has more than 20,000 employees worldwide and is estimated to be worth about 8.5 billion euro. Read more:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1340197

This tragedy stresses the importance of proper will and estate planning in the event that you should pass away unexpectedly. Under New York law, to be valid a will must be signed by an adult testator (or with someone’s help), in the presence of the 2 witnesses or alone, provided he later shows the signature to the witnesses and acknowledges that it is his signature. The will must also be in writing and the signature must be at the end of the document. Finally, the testator must publish that the document is a will by establishing that the document is in fact their last will and testament. If these will formalities are not abided, then the document will not be admitted into probate and has no effect.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island to probate wills.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529.

Charles Spencer, the brother of the late Princess Diana, has announced his engagement to a Canadian charity worker Karen Gordon.  Gordon is the founder and chief executive officer of Whole Child International, at the ancestral home where Diana is buried.  This is Spencer’s third marriage.  Spencer has four children from his first marriage to ex-model Victoria Lockwood and two other children from his second marriage to Caroline Hutton.  The couple will marry on June 18, 2011, just weeks after his nephew Prince William weds fiancée Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011.  Full Story: NY Daily News.

It is important for those who enter marriage with children from a previous relationship to consider updating all estate planning documents.  A popular estate planning tool used by individuals who are in this situation is a Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP) Trust.  This enables a spouse to look after his or her current spouse and ensure that the assets from the trust are then passed on to beneficiaries of his or her choice, such as the children from the spouse’s first marriage.  Income, and sometimes principal, generated from the trust is given to the surviving spouse to ensure he or she is taken care of for the remainder of his or her life.  Then once that spouse has passed, the principal is then given to the children of the first deceased spouse.  This avoids children of the spouse that passes first being written out of their father or mother’s estate, as often times the surviving spouse will rewrite his or her Last Will and Testament after their spouses passes, leaving the entire estate to their own children, and giving nothing to the deceased spouse’s children.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

Rachelle Friedman’s perfect world changed after a freak accident at her bachelorette party left her paralyzed from the chest down.  Friedman’s best friend and bridesmaid jokingly pushed the bride-to-be into the shallow end of a pool, causing Friedman to snap her neck and float to the surface.  Although Friedman planned to marry her finance, Chris Chapman, health insurance has prevented the pair from moving forward with wedding plans, even though the two remain a couple.  Their reason for not marrying: Friedman’s health insurance is limited and she must rely on medicaid to cover the costs of her care.  If the couple got married, her governmental assistance would stop due to the couple’s combined income.  Full story:  Huffington Post

Medicaid is a government program for people who cannot afford to pay for medical care.  Medicaid is a means tested program that is jointly funded by state and federal governments and managed by the states.  Assistance is only available to those who qualify: those with high medical bills, those receiving Supplemental Security Income, and those who meet certain financial requirements.  A major area of Medicaid is its nursing home coverage.  The average cost of a nursing home in the United States is roughly $6,250 a month.  As a general rule, the government will only pay the nursing home bill if the individual’s cash is below $2,000.  This means that it is vital to plan ahead so that your loved one meets the eligibility requirements of Medicaid.  An experienced estate planning attorney may held you plan for the future.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. have worked with a variety of families in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

The famous actor, Tony Curtis, died last week at age 85.  Humor was sprinkled throughout his memorial service as his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, did an impression of her father.  “We are the evidence of him,” she said before getting emotional.  California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stated that the Some Like It Hot star, “was always paying so much attention to me, even when I was a nobody.”  Known to wear white in the years leading up to his death, Curtis was buried in his favorite outfit – white sweater, white shorts, white scarf and his favorite Stetson hat under his arm.   Many of his favorite items were also buried with him: seven packets of Splenda, an iPhone, medals, gold coins and his late son’s baby shoes.  Read More

Tony Curtis fans should look to their attorney before watching Some Like It Hot, since estate planning is an important step to take into retirement. Additionally advance directives such as a living will, health care power of attorney, and health care proxy help to protect as individual should they become incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves.  A living will, for example, is a document signed by the creator which dictates what will happen in the event that the creator becomes sick, incapacitated, or face life support. A healthcare power of attorney gives someone else the power to make healthcare decisions on your behalf should you become sick and unable to make your own medical decisions.

The attorneys at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. recognize the importance of proper estate planning.  It is important to update and/or create a last will and testament or a trust when major family events occur such as a marriage, divorce, or birth of a child.  For questions regarding estate planning, please contact an attorney at the Leeds Morelli & Brown P.C. law firm for a free consultation at 1-888-556-2529 or visit the firm’s website at www.lbestatelaw.com.

Eleven workers are still missing after an oil rig, named the Deepwater Horizon, exploded, caught fire, and sank 36 hours later off the coast of Louisiana.  Coast Guard crews searched for the workers over a 1,940-square-mile search area by air twelve times and by boat five times.  Seventeen workers have been brought to shore, suffering from burns, broken legs and smoke inhalation, while four of them were critically injured.  About 100 others who were not hurt had made it to a supply boat after the explosion. The 400-by-250-foot rig (about twice the size of a football field) is owned by Transocean Ltd. and was under contract to BP.  A lawsuit was filed shortly after the blast, claiming the companies were negligent. Since 2001, there have been 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries and 858 fires and explosions in the Gulf, according to the federal Minerals Management Service. On average, offshore oil workers earn between $40,000 to $60,000 a year.  Joe Hurt, regional vice president for the International Association of Drilling Contractors has stated that, “Working on offshore oil rigs is a dangerous job, but has become safer in recent years thanks to improved training, safety systems and maintenance”. See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36683314

Tragedies such as the one occurring off the coast of Louisiana are unexpected but the security of your loved ones and the property you own can be protected by a Last Will and Testament.  According to New York Surrogate’s Courts, a valid will can transfer an interest in both personal property (e.g. bank accounts, furniture, stocks, and clothing) and real property (such as real estate).  A will also allows a person to name an individual to serve as an executor of the estate and guardian over the children.  Moreover, a will can provide protection for family members (for example, trusts for adult incompetent children).
See: http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/surrogates/faqs.shtml#q3

Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC lawyers have extensive experience handling probate and estate matters.  Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC guardianship, surrogate, testate and intestate representation extends to clients throughout Long Island, the New York Metropolitan area. For more information or a free consultation, contact Leeds, Morelli & Brown, PC at 1-800-585-4658.

CNN Reports the lights on Broadway in New York City were dimmed Thursday, March 19, to honor the life of famed actress Natasha Richardson. Richardson’s most prominent New York appearance came over a decade ago in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of “Cabaret,” for which Richardson won a 1998 Tony award for Best Actress. Richardson died in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City after suffering a brain injury while skiing at a resort in Quebec, Canada.

According to the Canadian ambulance service director, paramedics who were dispatched to the ski slope shortly after her fall were turned away before they could check on Richardson. Shortly thereafter, Richardson returned to her hotel accompanied by her ski instructor, but started feeling poorly about an hour after the fall. Richardson was taken to a local hospital in Canada before she was transferred to Hospital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal. Richardson died in New York City from what the medical examiner’s office ruled an accidental death caused by “epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head.” Read the rest of this entry »