A trustee is the person or institution who holds and manages the property inside your trust for the benefit of the people you love — your spouse, your children, and other beneficiaries you name. In New York, that role is not casual or honorary. A trustee is a fiduciary, which means he or she is legally bound by the highest
When the person who created a trust passes away, trust administration is the private, court-free process by which the successor trustee gathers the trust assets, pays final debts and taxes, and distributes what remains to the spouse, children, and other loved ones named in the trust. In New York, this process is governed by the Estates, Powers and Trusts Law
If you are a New York parent or spouse asking which trust is right for your family, the short answer is this: choose a revocable living trust when your priority is keeping control, avoiding probate, and managing your affairs if you become incapacitated — and choose an irrevocable trust when your priority is reducing estate tax, protecting assets from creditors,
Protecting your assets with a trust in New York means using a legal structure — governed by the New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) Article 7 — to control how, when, and to whom your property passes, while shielding your spouse, children, and loved ones from probate delays, lost public benefits, and, in the right circumstances, estate tax
Yes. A properly drafted and fully funded revocable living trust avoids probate in New York. When you transfer your assets into the trust during your lifetime, those assets are no longer owned by you personally at death — they are owned by the trust. Because there is nothing left to “probate” in your individual name, your family skips the Surrogate’s
Yes — despite its name, a New York irrevocable trust is not always frozen forever. While an irrevocable trust generally cannot be amended or revoked at will, New York law gives families real, lawful pathways to modify one when life changes: most often through the unanimous written consent of the grantor and all beneficiaries, or through a technique called decanting,
Immigrant and mixed-status families in New York can protect assets with trusts. Learn QDOTs, irrevocable trusts, and when to call an immigration lawyer.