Yes, trusts can avoid probate in New York. By creating a trust and transferring assets into it, you can bypass the probate process, which can be time-consuming and expensive. Assets held in a trust do not become part of your personal estate and are not subject to probate upon your death.
The cost of creating a trust in New York varies depending on the complexity of your estate and the attorney's fees. The average cost for a basic Revocable Living Trust ranges from $1,000 to $3,000, while more complex trusts may cost more. Online legal services may offer lower-cost alternatives to traditional legal services for creating trusts.
The overall cost of estate planning in New York can run up to $5,650.
The most common type of trust is a Revocable Living Trust, which allows you to maintain control over your assets during your lifetime and can be amended or revoked. Other types of trusts, such as Charitable Trusts or Special Needs Trusts, may be appropriate depending on your specific estate planning goals.
To fund a trust in New York, you must transfer ownership of your assets to the trust. This includes re-titling real estate, changing account holders for bank accounts, and transferring ownership of personal property, vehicles, business interests, stocks, and bonds.
Adding a house to a trust in New York can be more complicated. The state has specific rules and regulations about it.
In New York, any individual who is at least 18 years old and mentally competent can serve as a trustee. Furthermore, New York law allows for corporations, such as banks or trust companies, to serve as a trustee if they are authorized to exercise trust powers in the state. Trustees must be able to manage and take care of property, and they must not have been convicted of serious crimes, including felonies or crimes that involve dishonest or immoral behavior.
In New York, to alter your living trust, you will need to prepare an amendment to the original trust document. This amendment should clearly detail the changes you wish to implement, such as adding or removing beneficiaries, changing the appointed trustees, or modifying the instructions for distribution. Make sure to include the date, your name, the name of the trust, and the date the trust was created within the amendment. The amendment, like the original trust document, must be signed in the presence of a notary public. If your changes are extensive, it might be more practical to draft a restatement of the trust. A restatement allows you to rewrite the entire trust document, while preserving the original date and title of the trust, which can be advantageous in avoiding the need to retitle assets. In the restatement, you should include all the changes you want to make, and these new provisions will completely replace the old ones.
