Our Practice Areas

Estate Planning

As estate planning attorneys, we draft wills, trusts, powers of attorney and health care directives, and we plan for the situations a standard will does not cover.

• Wills and Trusts

  A complete plan for a New York resident: the will, the revocable or irrevocable trust where one is warranted, and the documents that act while you are alive. See our guide to what a trust costs in New York.

• Contest-Proof Wills

  Drafting and executing a will for someone with a medical condition, diminished capacity, or a family likely to object, so that it survives the challenge we can see coming.

• Advanced Planning and Asset Protection

  Techniques for larger estates: lifetime gifting, irrevocable trusts, estate tax planning around the New York cliff, and protecting assets from future creditors.

• Special Needs Planning

  Third-party supplemental needs trusts that provide for a disabled child or adult without disqualifying them from Medicaid and SSI.

• Medicaid Planning

  Medicaid asset protection trusts, the five-year look-back, and the planning that lets a family keep the home while qualifying for long-term care coverage.

• Trust Administration

  Guiding trustees through funding, investment duties, distributions, tax filings and accountings once the trust is in effect.

Probate and Estate Administration

Getting an executor or administrator appointed and the estate settled, in the Surrogate’s Court of every county in the New York City region. Routine matters are handled on a flat fee.

• Probate

  Admitting the will, obtaining letters testamentary, and carrying the estate through to distribution. See how the New York probate process works.

• Estate Administration

  When there is no will: who has priority to serve, how letters of administration issue, and how the estate passes under the intestacy rules. Our administration lawyers handle the whole process.

• Kinship Proceedings

  Proving who the heirs are when a person dies without a will and without close family, including the proof the Public Administrator and the court require.

• Lost Wills

  Probating a copy when the original cannot be found, and overcoming the presumption that a missing will was revoked.

• Estate and Trust Accountings

  Preparing, compelling, objecting to and defending accountings, informal and judicial, and the commissions that go with them.

• Guardianship

  Article 81 guardianships for adults who can no longer manage their affairs: petitioning, defending, and administering the guardianship once appointed. See how a guardianship proceeding works.

Estate Litigation

When an estate dispute cannot be settled by agreement, our estate litigation practice takes it to the Surrogate. Contested matters are billed hourly, and where the estate is large enough we take objectants’ cases on contingency.

• Will Contests

  Challenging or defending a will on the grounds of capacity, due execution, fraud or undue influence, from SCPA 1404 examinations through trial.

• Trust Contests

  Disputes over whether a trust or an amendment is valid, and over how a trustee has interpreted and carried out its terms.

• Breach of Fiduciary Duty

  Holding executors, administrators and trustees to their duties of loyalty and prudence, and recovering what the estate lost when they fell short.

• Removing a Fiduciary

  Petitioning to remove or suspend an executor, administrator or trustee who is unfit, has a conflict, or is mismanaging the estate.

• Contested Accountings

  Objecting to the fiduciary’s account entry by entry, taking discovery, and pursuing a surcharge where the numbers do not hold up.

• Appeals

  Appealing a Surrogate’s Court decree or order to the Appellate Division, and defending favorable decrees on appeal.

Real Estate Disputes Arising From Estates

Inherited property is where many estate disputes end up. We handle the real estate litigation that follows.

• Partition Actions

  When co-owners of an inherited house or apartment cannot agree on keeping or selling it, a partition action forces a sale or division and accounts for who paid what. We prosecute and defend partition cases.

• Real Estate Litigation

  Disputes over deeds and transfers made before death, property held in trust, and the sale of estate property by a fiduciary.

Medicaid and SNAP Fraud Defense

The same agencies that administer long-term care Medicaid investigate suspected fraud, and the investigations often reach estate and elder law clients. We represent people at every stage, from the first letter to a hearing or prosecution.

• Medicaid Fraud Investigations

  Responding to HRA and Bureau of Fraud Investigation letters, interviews and demands for repayment, and defending referrals for prosecution.

• SNAP and Food Stamp Fraud

  Investigation letters, administrative disqualification hearings and intentional program violation charges, and the criminal cases that sometimes follow.

How We Approach New Matters

• A straight answer first

  The first conversation follows a consistent pattern. We listen to the facts, ask the questions that fill in the picture, and tell you what we think the likely path forward is. If we cannot help, because the matter is outside our practice, we have a conflict, or we do not believe the case has merit, we say so and refer you elsewhere when we can.

• Fees agreed in writing

  Routine probate and administration matters are handled on a flat fee. Estate litigation and contested proceedings are billed hourly, and where the estate is large enough we take objectants’ cases on contingency. The fee structure is discussed and agreed in writing before work begins.

• No over-litigating

  Many of the matters we handle resolve through settlement, often after a thorough investigation has shown both sides where the case is heading. We go to trial when settlement is not possible or would not produce a fair result, and we have a trial record across our practice areas.

• Direct access

  Clients deal with the attorneys working on their case. We return calls and emails promptly, keep you informed of significant developments, and explain documents and decisions in plain English rather than legal jargon.

Where We Practice

Our office is in Manhattan. We appear in the Surrogate’s and Supreme Courts throughout New York City and the surrounding counties, and upstate when a matter calls for it. Albert Goodwin is also admitted in Florida, where we handle the increasing number of estates with property in both states.

• Manhattan
• Brooklyn
• Queens
• Bronx
• Staten Island
• Nassau County
• Suffolk County
• Westchester County