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MATHEY + STERN

About
Practice Areas
Wills & Trusts
Small Business Needs
Real Estate Transactions & Litigation
Blog
Contact
March 17, 2025
Wills & Trusts
David Stern
How Do I Know When to Review My Estate Plan?

One of the more common questions I get: when should I think about updating my estate plan? 

It’s an important question, and the answer is simultaneously simple and complex.

Simple answer: a review of one’s estate plan should accompany all major life events.

So…what qualifies as a “major life event”?

How Do I Know When to Review My Estate Plan?
January 7, 2025
Wills & Trusts, Real Estate
David Stern
Estate Planning and Your Home

Probate is difficult enough under the best of circumstances. It’s a lot of confusing paperwork, back and forth with the Surrogate’s Court, and months of delay before an executor is finally empowered to act on behalf of an estate. When an estate includes real estate, the problem is amplified.

Estate Planning and Your Home
April 9, 2024
Wills & Trusts
David Stern
A Minor Debacle: Why NOT to Name Your Kids as ...

Most of the time when people set their beneficiaries on things like 401(k)s, IRAs, life insurance policies, and brokerage accounts they name their spouse as “primary” (assuming they have one), and their kids as “contingent.” We’ve been told this eases the burden on our family, so they can avoid probate when we pass - a noble goal! Unfortunately, if your children are under eighteen, this well-intentioned plan can lead to unintended complexities – even if you have a will.

A Minor Debacle: Why NOT to Name Your Kids as Beneficiaries
October 31, 2023
Small Business
David Stern
Taking Your Business to the Next Level

A lot of the issues in running a business are solved by simply doing a great job for your clients, being honest about what you know and what you don’t, and being a clear communicator. Many others, like those around efficiency and sustainable growth, are a little more complicated yet vitally important to the survival and success of a business.

Taking Your Business to the Next Level
August 15, 2023
Wills & Trusts
Juliet Mazer-Schmidt Jr.
Estate Plans and the Hands Behind Them: Why ...

Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies.

While death is a universal point of human connection, the circumstances behind each are distinct – because each life is distinct.

Estate Plans and the Hands Behind Them: Why Humanity Matters in Drafting Your Will.
David Stern
May 23, 2018
Wills & Trusts

How to Cash in by Betting on Your Inevitable Demise

David Stern
May 23, 2018
Wills & Trusts
How to Cash in by Betting on Your Inevitable Demise

Everyone LOVES life insurance, right? I’ll tell you, nothing makes me happier than paying my monthly premium and thinking about how happy my family will be to get a large check when I die. Normal people do NOT think this way. 

Tagged: Insurance, Family, Estate planning

David Stern
April 25, 2018
Wills & Trusts

Do You Need a “Minor Trust”?

David Stern
April 25, 2018
Wills & Trusts
Do You Need a “Minor Trust”?

Trusts are incredibly flexible and useful estate planning tools. There are many kinds of trusts which serve a variety of different purposes, but perhaps none so important as that of the “minor trust”.

Tagged: Wills, trusts, Estate planning, Children, Family

David Stern
March 15, 2018
Wills & Trusts

Coordinate Your Beneficiaries

David Stern
March 15, 2018
Wills & Trusts
Coordinate Your Beneficiaries

Creating a will or trust is a vital part of anyone’s estate plan, but it’s not where the planning ends. Ensuring that the beneficiaries you’ve listed on 401Ks and other retirement accounts, insurance policies, annuities, etc., are coordinated with those estate planning documents is essential to the success of that plan. 

Tagged: Estate planning, Wills, trusts

David Stern
February 15, 2018
Wills & Trusts

Choosing a Guardian for Your Children

David Stern
February 15, 2018
Wills & Trusts
Choosing a Guardian for Your Children

Planning for the future is pretty difficult when you consider it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen.  What we CAN do is prepare for, and protect against, events which, however unlikely, we know to be possibilities.

Tagged: guardians, wills, trusts, Estate planning

David Stern
December 13, 2017
Wills & Trusts

What Happens When You Die?

David Stern
December 13, 2017
Wills & Trusts
What Happens When You Die?

Well, unfortunately I don’t have supernatural powers or divine intuition, so I can’t rightly say what happens to you when you die. 

What happens with your property and your children is an altogether different matter... 

Source: https://law.justia.com/codes/new-york/2013/ept/article-4/part-1/4-1.1

Tagged: Wills, Trusts, Estate planning

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Mathey and Stern, Attorneys at Law, 155 Water Street #3-5, Brooklyn, NY, 11201(917) 960-7534David@MatheyandStern.com or Sean@MatheyandStern.com
 

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