A White Plains estate plan should fit the family it serves. Different assets, different family structures, and different long-term goals call for different documents. LaMagna McKenna designs estate plans that match the situation rather than the template.
Personalized service. Compassionate counsel. Trusted advocacy.
Before any documents get drafted, we sit down with the White Plains client to understand the family, the assets, the people involved, and the priorities. The documents follow from that conversation, not the other way around.
Westchester families often hold meaningful real estate, multi-generational businesses, or beneficiaries with their own complications. Estate planning has to account for all of that, not just the will.
Where a White Plains client already has a CPA or financial advisor, we coordinate so the estate plan and the financial plan move in the same direction rather than working at cross purposes.
Westchester County Surrogate's Court is busy. Estate planning that uses trusts, joint titling, and beneficiary designations where appropriate keeps more of the estate out of court and in the family.
A White Plains resident who cannot act for themselves needs someone the law recognizes to do it. Powers of attorney and healthcare proxies put those names in place before they are needed, not after.
An estate plan is the legal expression of decades of work. Done well, it ensures that work passes to the people it was meant for, in the form it was meant to take.
A: Whenever the family changes, the assets change significantly, or the law changes meaningfully. As a general guideline, every three to five years is reasonable. The most common trigger is a marriage, divorce, birth, or death within the family.
A: Not always. Trusts solve specific problems, probate avoidance, controlled distribution to certain beneficiaries, planning around long-term care, and they make sense when those problems exist. A clean will may be sufficient when they do not.
A: Yes. Business succession planning, buy-sell agreements, and the coordination of business interests with the personal estate are all matters the firm handles regularly for White Plains owners.
Thank you for considering LaMagna McKenna for your legal matter in White Plains, NY. We respond to inquiries Monday through Friday during normal business hours.
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*Manhattan and Long Island Offices, scheduled by appointment.
