A conversation with Malory Lea, a Trust and Estates attorney with Cohen, Solloway and Woolridge, P.C. In addition to her work, Malory enjoys hiking, yoga, and spending time with her husband and two daughters.
Malory Lea counsels clients on all aspects of estate planning, including estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax issues and income tax issues related to estate planning. Malory develops comprehensive estate plans for a wide range of clients, including high net-worth individuals, and is skilled at drafting wills and various trust agreements which address the needs of her clients.
Malory shared that, though she knows that she grew up privileged, her family never spent money unnecessarily. Her mother worked in the financial world, and was a strong model. Today, in her family, Malory manages the finances and is teaching money skills to her two young daughters.
Malory's decision to attend law school was influenced by her father, who is a practicing lawyer. Her first job out of law school was as a litigator but, after doing some work with a Trust and Estates attorney, she realized she was drawn to working with clients and feeling like she was having an impact on their lives.
" It's like a puzzle, you know, putting the puzzle pieces together, because we do a lot of stuff with the finances and trying to figure out what's the best way to avoid estate taxes. It's kind of just a puzzle and I enjoy that part." - Malory Lea
Key takeaways:
- Estate planning documents are important no matter what, but especially in a transition, like a divorce. Although there is a statute in New York State that revokes certain estate planning designations you made in the past, it only takes effect once the divorce is final. As we all know, divorces can take quite a long time and you don't want this to be hanging over your head in the interim.
- If you are currently going through a divorce, don’t forget to remove your spouse as your executor and especially as your power of attorney. You don’t want your ex-spouse to be making healthcare decisions for you in your healthcare proxy and living will. You’ll also want to review your beneficiary designations and, if needed, remove your ex-spouse from inheriting any assets.
- Often, when we put our estate planning documents together, we name siblings as secondary agents to take care of our children or to be our alternate agent under our healthcare documents or power of attorney. Know that, even when our divorce is finalized the statute in New York would NOT revoke those appointments. Yet another reason to review all our documents when going through a divorce.
- The statute also does NOT revoke irrevocable provisions passing to your spouse. Malory used the example of an irrevocable life insurance trust in place to pass to the spouse. Special documents need to be prepared by your estate planning attorney in order to amend or, in many cases depending upon what state you’re in, decant this trust. Similar to decanting wine, decanting a trust is the process of pouring the assets from one trust to another.
- Finally, Malory noted that it is important for all of us to have estate planning documents in place: to name a health care proxy and a power of attorney, to make our healthcare decisions known in a living will, to name a guardian for our minor children, to set up trusts when appropriate and to avoid the probate process, especially in states where the process can be time consuming and onerous.
About the guest:
Malory counsels clients on all aspects of estate planning, including estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax issues and income tax issues related to estate planning. Malory develops comprehensive estate plans for a wide range of clients, including high net-worth individuals, and is skilled at drafting wills and various trust agreements which address the needs of our clients.
Prior to joining the firm in 2020, Malory lived and worked as an estate planning attorney in Burlington, Vermont.
Malory enjoys hiking, yoga, and spending time with her husband and two daughters.
Linkedin:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/malory-goldstein-lea-727740b/
Website:- http://estatelawny.com/
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Malory Lea: It's like a puzzle, you know, putting the puzzle pieces together, dealing with the, you know, cuz we, we do a lot of stuff with the finances and trying to figure out what's the best way to avoid estate taxes. It's kind of just a puzzle and I enjoy that part as well.
Welcome to Making Change With Your Money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves. Now, here's your host, certified financial planner, Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter: I am so excited to have as my guest today, Malory Lea. She's a Trust and Estate's attorney with Cohen, Soloway and Woolridge, and Mallory develops comprehensive estate plans for a wide range of clients, including high net worth individuals. She is skilled counseling clients on all aspects of estate planning, including estate, gift and generation skipping transfer tax issues and income tax issues. And Mallory also enjoys hiking yoga and spending time with her husband and two daughters. So, Mallory, welcome to the Making Change With Your Money podcast.
Malory Lea: Thank you, Laura. Thanks so much for having me.
Laura Rotter: I am going to start, as I warned you with the same question that I've been starting this podcast with for every guest, and that question is, what was money like in your family growing up?
Malory Lea: So, growing up, I think I was very lucky in how I grew up in Westchester. My, my parents both. I think it's better for me to start out with how, how my parents grew up to show some background with how I grew up. My parents grew up with nothing, with very little money. They both went to Queens College, so they did go to college, but they both lived at home and they both worked very hard.
My dad went to law school to St. John's Law School and my mom ended up being a portfolio manager. So, even coming from, from little means, they both did very well for themselves. So, I was very lucky in how I grew up. But, they had that same mindset, which, you know, we, we didn't go out and spend money on, I didn't get to wear the expensive clothes like all the other kids were, were wearing, which was, and I didn't get a new brand new car on my 16th birthday, which was hard up in Westchester. And that was hard growing up, but looking back, I'm so glad that I was raised that way where we didn't spend money unnecessarily and, but I, at the same time, lived a very privileged lifestyle. So, I think I learned from a very young age the meaning of money and my mom. Was a very strong woman in the finance world, and so I had a very good role model to look up to. And I, I also deal with all the finances in my household, so that's what it's like and I'm, I'm already letting my girls who are five and three earn rewards to earn money so that they can spend save. And share.
Laura Rotter: Share. That's a hard one for five and three.
Malory Lea: We haven't gotten there yet, but that's the plan.
Laura Rotter: That's so wonderful though, Mallory, that you're already thinking about. You know, educating your kids even at a young age, which I have to say now my kids are, you know, roughly around 30 and that was, that was never easy to figure out, you know, should they have an allowance? Should they have to spend their allowance on real things or just on fun things?
It's a wonderful thing to start early and I would also say that, and I'm sure you see it already, that each one has a different personality. And so some of it is gonna be nurture and what you teach, and some of it is just gonna be a predisposition towards how they wanna spend their money. And I guess one more question I have for you is, how did you come to choose the profession of estate planning?
Malory Lea: So that's another good question. I, I started off, there were a lot of things I wanted to do before law school and, and then finally my dad is a lawyer, I said, so I, I did end up going to law school. I think a lot of it was his influence and he knew my personality. He thought it would be a good fit. And in law school, I never really, uh, I actually didn't even take an a Trust and Estate course in law school because it wasn't even on my radar.
And then when I started as a lawyer, I was doing litigation and I knew I didn't wanna do that, but that's the job that was available at the time. And I ended up working, my office was next to a Trust and Estates attorney, and I just ended up doing a little bit of work with him and I really, really enjoyed it. So I got into it.
Laura Rotter: And what I, I'm curious if you could name what you enjoy about it.
Malory Lea: So part of it is being able to work with clients and help them and feel like I'm making a, an impact on their lives. And the other part is, it's like a puzzle. You know, putting the puzzle pieces together, dealing with the, you know, cuz we, we do a lot of stuff with the finances and trying to figure out what's the best way to avoid estate taxes. It's kind of just a puzzle and I enjoy that part as well.
Laura Rotter: Thank you so much for sharing that. So Mallory, as we talked about earlier, one of the reasons I invited you to be a guest on the podcast is because as I've been interviewing women 50 years old or so that are going through a life transition, I find that many of the transitions include change in marital status. You know, women who after 25 years or so are finding that, you know, the marriage is not working anymore and are recreating their lives. And, um, I know how important it is to make sure that you have the right estate planning documents in place when you're making a when this big shift is taking place, that to not forget about that, so love you to help our listeners understand what they should be thinking about at this time in their lives.
Malory Lea: Yes. So, your estate planning documents are important no matter what, but especially in a, a transition, like a divorce. Luckily there is, in New York, there's a statute that a divorce agreement has a certain effect.
On your documents that you've already executed. So in New York, after a divorce is final, it revokes any dispositions you've made to a former spouse, whether it's by will, by revocable trust and some beneficiary designations. I believe it's there's transfer on death, beneficiary designations, and any beneficiary designations for retirement, pension accounts to the extent that the law permits. So I believe maybe some of the plans might not allow that, but for the most part it does revoke those.
Laura Rotter: Interesting. I never knew that.
Malory Lea: Yes. And actually also for, for fiduciary is named it also revokes if you've named your former spouse as executor, trustee of a revocable trust, power of attorney, agent under power of attorney, and uh, healthcare documents. The problem being this doesn't come into play until the divorce is final. And as I'm sure you know, some divorces can take quite a long time and you don't want this to be hanging over your head in the interim. So I definitely still recommend updating your documents if you're going through a divorce, to remove your spouse as your executor to remove your spouse, especially as your power of attorney to make healthcare decisions for you in the healthcare proxy and living will.
So I think it's important, even though we have this fallback provision not to rely on it because like I said, the interim period that's this statute has no effect on the interim period before the divorce is final. But also, the statute says that. A payer would not be held liable if they accidentally made the payment to the spouse if they weren't notified. So I still think even though you have this fallback provision, if they haven't been given your final divorce agreement, and they don't know about it, and then they pay your life insurance to your former spouse on your death. They cannot be held liable for that. So, I still think, uh, and same thing with beneficiary destinations. It's still very important if you're going through a divorce to the extent you can, you know, maybe the court might say certain things you can't, you can't do in at that time. But to the extent that you can, to have a new power of attorney to name somebody else as your agent. To update your healthcare documents. So if you're in New York, that's probably a healthcare proxy and a living will to name somebody else as your agent, to change your will, to remove your spouse as your, probably as your executor, probably any assets passing to your spouse under your will or a revocable trust. So it, it's definitely something I would recommend, even though, like I said, we do have this fallback provision once the divorce is final,
Laura Rotter: And I, I guess what's coming to mind from, frankly, many relationships. I know that the partners are together for years, but have never actually had a marriage so that they, you know, they have documents where they named each other and they'll, there won't be a final divorce if they died
Malory Lea: Right in that fallback provision won't help in those cases. They really do. If there's an end to any relationship that they've named these people, they do need to update all of their documents and all their beneficiary designations as well.
Laura Rotter: Thank you. So again, just for this part to remember to check your power of attorney and if needed, change who you've named.
Check your healthcare proxy and live in will, and if needed, change who you've named and check the will itself, both for who you've named as fiduciaries, as well as beneficiaries, and be aware of that.
Malory Lea: Exactly. And then a few other reasons that we can't just rely on the statute is, is one thing that people typically do in their wills or sometimes even your, your advanced directives is you've maybe named your spouse's sibling to take care of your children or to get some assets or to be your alternate agent under your healthcare documents or your power of attorney.
This statute doesn't revoke those dispositions or those appointments. So, it's really important to update your documents for those reasons, especially, you know, what we call the catastrophe provision. Sometimes you say what happens to your assets if you have no surviving spouse or children. A lot of times if you're married, maybe that would be half to your family, half to your spouse's family.
So that's something you probably would want to remove as well if you're going through a divorce. That's a reason not to, to rely on the statute and to update your documents. And another is that is for irrevocable documents. So, this, this statute does not revoke irrevocable provisions passing to your spouse.
So, let's say you have a life insurance trust. Maybe there's a life insurance trust that you set up for your life insurance policy to keep that out of your estate for state tax purposes. And you have your spouse is the beneficiary of that trust. It is irrevocable. It doesn't get revoked by that statute, but there are actually things, especially in New York that we can do, it does require a little bit more heavy lifting on our part in terms of what documents we need to prepare. But there are things that we can do to change that if you, your spouse is named in those documents.
Laura Rotter: I'm just curious, as somebody who has, who has an irrevocable trust for my insurance, uh, not that I'm planning to do anything, how do you, how do you address that?
Malory Lea: Yes. So there is a statute in New York where you can amend an irrevocable trust if everyone there's circumstances have to be right.
So this, this would be an easier way to deal with it if the circumstances are right, but the settler, the person who set up the trust has to be living and all of the beneficiaries basically need to agree consent to it, that always, especially in divorce. Does not happen. Cannot happen. So there's also a process called decanting that is allowed by statute in New York.
So basically, you think about decanting wine, you pour one bottle into another. It's basically the same thing. You pour all the assets from one trust into another. But like I said, it does require a lot of heavy lifting in terms of what needs to happen, the documents that need to be drafted, the notices that need to be given, but it there is something we can do.
Laura Rotter: I'm curious, you talk about, again, this is specifically in New York. I know you practice in New York though you've also practiced in Vermont. We have listeners that aren't necessarily just in the New York area. How liberal is New York or you know, relative to other geographic areas, what should be aware of?
Malory Lea: So it's definitely the decanting is definitely spa state specific. Certain states, and I can't give you the list of all of them, but certain states have decanting statutes. Others do not. It doesn't necessarily mean you can't decant in that state, but you might have to rely to see if there's a provision in the trust that allows for decanting, which there not isn't always.
Other states do have statutes on amending trusts. A lot of states have non-judicial settlement, settlement agreements that you can do. It's similar to the, the statute I said where you can amend the trust, but there are, every state is different and there are requirements that you need to have in order to be able to do those kind of amendments to the trust.
My firm, so I'm licensed in New York and Vermont. My firm Cohen, Soloway, Wooldridge. We practice also, we do estate planning in Connecticut and New Jersey.
Laura Rotter: All right. And so how do Connecticut and New Jersey stand relative to New York having this statute that when the divorce is final, it's, you know,
Malory Lea: You know, I didn't, um, I didn't look into that before this, but I can definitely look into that and get back to you on that.
Laura Rotter: Thank you. I'm just curious. It sounds. Might like a nice thing to have if you're going through divorces, you said? Yeah, I would say,
Malory Lea: I would say, I think it's a pretty common statute to be, to be found in certain states, but I'm sure the terms differ in each state. So I'd have to read. Read the exact statute to let you know exactly how that state handles it.
Laura Rotter: Any thoughts of how important it is to have this at the top of your to-do list? Right. Again, obviously it's the work that you do, so you are aware of the necessity of making sure you follow up. And of course you're also aware that when people are going through a divorce, especially when there are kids involved and there's so many things to take care of, um, where should this be in level of priority?
Malory Lea: Yes. Yeah, that's such a hard question. And it's all about, I guess, personal preference and personal risk tolerance because like I, I always tell my clients, you know, if I had a crystal ball, I could tell you exactly what to do and when to do it, but unfortunately we don't have that. So it's really, it's up to, I know there is so much to do going through a divorce, but I would say it is something that's very important because if something did happen in the divorce proceeding before the divorce is final and.
Something happened to you even, even if you didn't die, if you're incapacitated, your former spouse is going. I would say the advanced directives are the most important to get done quickly, because if something happens to you, your, your former spouse is going to be making your healthcare decisions. You know, maybe sometimes there's a good relationship there.
I would say most of the time probably not, and. You would hope that somebody wouldn't make a terrible decision just going through that process, but you never know. So you, you don't want somebody, your almost former spouse, to be in those roles making those decisions for you for healthcare decisions, but also to have, if your spouse is your agent under power of attorney, they can be accessing your finances.
So those, I think advanced directives, I would say that's pretty high up on the list of something to get done. Your will, that's, that's more risk tolerance. Do you, do you expect to be living hopefully for a while. So that's a hard question for me to say. You know, this should be number three on the list, but I think it's, it should be pretty high up there.
Laura Rotter: Mallory, you make a good point, and this brings to mind something that we also noted before we, I hit record, which is broadly I find when I work with clients, Estate planning documents drops pretty low on the list, especially right now with the federal number for estates to be taxed is so high that, you know, most of my clients feel like this is not gonna affect me. I don't really need to do anything. And as you just said, there are various documents in addition to a will that are part of an estate plan. Can you speak to you know, broadly for our listeners, the importance of having certain documents in place even when your state isn't 22 million or 11 million or whatever.
Malory Lea: So, I would say, I mean, the advanced directives are important for everyone, but even a will is important to have. Even if you think you don't have that much in assets, it's not necessarily because you're trying to avoid estate tax, why you should have an estate plan. You need these documents, particularly the advanced directives to name individuals, to be in charge of your finances and your healthcare decisions.
If you can't be making those decisions yourself. So those are very important for everybody to have a healthcare proxy, to name an agent, to make healthcare decisions for you if you can't make those decisions yourself. And a power of attorney to deal with your finances. But a will is also important if you know, even if you don't have a lot of assets, if you have young children, you wanna name guardians.
You don't wanna leave it up to the court to decide who should be taking care of your children if both parents pass away before the kids are 18. So that's really important. Same thing with staying on the young children topic. Even if you have little in assets, even if you have combined maybe 500,000 and you have young children, you don't want an 18 year old getting $500,000.
And that's what's going to happen if you don't say in your will that those, those assets should be held maybe in trust to a certain age. So that's really important. There are things about an estate plan that are so important. Even if you don't have a lot in assets, it's not, it's not necessarily avoiding the estate tax.
If you have, let's say you have property in another state, maybe you still don't, are, don't fall under the, over the exemption amount. So you're not worried about an estate tax, but let's say you have your house in New York and you have a property in Vermont. Well now not only are you having to deal with probate in New York on your death, so probate the probate process, what happens with your assets after your death?
It's the court process by which your executor named in your will. Or if you don't have an uh, an A will, your administrator. Deals with your assets, administers your estate and passes your assets to your name beneficiaries under your will or to your a asset law. So if you have property in New York, And in Vermont, not only do you have to have a probate estate in New York, you'd have to have an ancillary probate estate in Vermont.
The probate process in New York is a little bit more simplified. People not, aren't necessarily always trying to avoid probate in New York, but in Vermont it can be pretty slow. I mean, there are costs to probate. It's also a public record. People don't always want their assets especially in Vermont, the way the probate process works, it's a little bit more public than in New York. People don't want their assets to be out there for everybody to see, so you might want to set up a revocable trust to avoid probate. For that reason, having assets in multiple states, Or even if you have it in one state and wanted to avoid probate for tho for those other reasons. So those are just a few I have, there are many other reasons I could give you why you should be doing estate planning, even if you're not over the exemption amounts.
But those are, those are a few.
Laura Rotter: Thank you. And then, so you brought up. Another question again broadly, cuz I know you could talk about this for hours, but I had a client recently ask me, you know, I have an estate planning attorney who's recommending that I set up trust. Do I need to set up trust? And specifically, this client is in New York where the probate process isn't so onerous like you said. So when should you consider setting up trust? One of the times you named is when you have a minor child or even someone who you don't want them to suddenly come into a lot of ways.
Malory Lea: Yes. Well, with the, with the trust. Sorry to interrupt you, Laura, but with the No worries with the trust, we can do those under will.
So you don't necessarily have to have a revocable trust just because they're minor children in New York that's the case. Maybe in Connecticut you would probably want to do that in a revocable trust, cuz there's ongoing court supervision. If you have the trust under your will. In New York that's not the case.
So that's one reason we can do it under your wills. But for revocable trust versus just a will, cuz the revocable trust is really a will substitute. In New York, it is a more simplified process. I would definitely say in certain counties it is a lot slower than others right now. Especially with, yeah, with the background from Covid. So I think people are, and I'm bringing it up more and more with clients just to give them the option of doing revocable trust. But some counties in New York are a very backlogged, so, um, I think Queens especially is pretty backed up. We are taking a lot longer than usual, so I think. People are, are thinking a little bit more about doing revocable trust for that reason.
But generally in New York, it is still a more straightforward, simplified process. But in other states, again, this is something that's state specific, so you would wanna consult with an attorney in your state, but there are other states that you would wanna avoid probate. Vermont, I would say being one of them. I believe Florida is another one.
Laura Rotter: Yeah, I was gonna name Florida. Have a client with a will in Florida. That poor over trust was was when the
Malory Lea: Yes. Yeah. So it's, it depends on the state property in more than one jurisdiction is another reason. And then I would say another big reason is clients who have had to deal with a probate, probate administration that was not good.
They've had to deal with it themselves. They see what the probate process is like, and they want. To avoid it for their children or the people they leave behind at all costs, because it can, it can get contentious sometimes. It can take a very long time. Um, so some people just have had that experience. And then for people who have children or even don't have children, it is doing a revocable trust can just make things even more, even in a state like New York where the process is pretty straightforward and streamlined.
Revocable trusts can make that even more streamlined because you are doing more work upfront. It is more work for the client upfront to change the title of your accounts into the name of trust, to do a de transferring your house into their trust, but then on the back end, Your children or whomever you name as a successor trustee, step right in all of the assets are already in the name of the trustee.
You don't have to file anything with the court, you don't have to, to deal with that probate process. So, so it is, for me personally, I wanna avoid probate, but I, I came from practicing in Vermont where that's all we were trying to do for our clients. So maybe my opinion is a little bit different than some others, other attorneys in New York.
So,
Laura Rotter: Mallory, can you. Briefly discuss the probate process cuz it's, it's not a process I'm familiar with other than the term.
Malory Lea: Sure. So anything you own in your individual name on your death has to go through probate. The ways that we avoid probate are beneficiary designation, so those don't have to go through probate that both directly to your name beneficiaries.
So if you have a retirement account, It goes directly to your name to Benne Name, beneficiary life insurance policies, um, or a transfer on death, right, or a transfer on death. Same kind of thing. Beneficiary destination, unless you've named your estate as the beneficiary. That's directing that. It goes to probate.
Joint ownership with the right of survivorship also avoids probate. So if you own your house jointly as spouses, that would automatically avoid probate on the first spouse's death, but then would be a probate asset on the second spouse's death, and then revocable trust. Trust ownership also avoids probate so the trust doesn't die, so the assets don't have to pass through probate, but anything in your individual name on your death has to go this through this probate process where if you have a will, it's your executor is filing papers with the court to say, this person has died. These are the assets they have, these are their beneficiaries under the will. These are their heirs at law. So it would have to also say not only who you name and your beneficiary in your will, but who, if you didn't have this will, who the assets would be passing to by law.
To notify all of the interested parties making, making sure there's nobody that's going to have to want to contest the will. So it's proving to the court that this will is, is here, that the, that it's a valid will, and then the court has to approve it basically. And so it's going through that process where the court is a, is allowing the will and giving the ex named executor, their letters testamentary to be able to be in charge of administering the estate. So that whole, that process. Can take, depending on your county, can take one month, it can take five months to get the letters testamentary. And that's the first point when the executor has that, where they can actually start to act as to the accounts that were into your individual names.
So some people don't like that waiting period, and so it's really the court process that deals with the whole administration of all of your A assets that were your, were in your individual name.
Laura Rotter: And Mallory, is that something that you, the estate planning attorney takes care of? Not, you know, so the, the executor isn't showing up at a court and everything there. You are doing it on this, on their behalf.
Malory Lea: So as the estate planner, we, we deal with before death for estate administration. We deal with after death. My firm does, does both. I focus mainly on estate planning, although I am doing a little bit of administration as well. Um, but we do have attorneys that you know, it depends on the client.
If they wanna be dealing with themselves, we can be there to just be on the sidelines giving advice, or we can, you know, some, we have some clients that say, I'm the named executor, I don't wanna deal with it.. Do do that as well.
Laura Rotter: Right, exactly
Malory Lea: So it's, it depends, but we do help with that process as well.
Laura Rotter: Thank you. And I do have a financial question. So if, let's say the home is put into a trust, is there a step up in basis? When the person dies or like how does that work?
Malory Lea: Yes, that's a good question. And so we're talking about revocable trusts here. And so for revocable trust, yes, there is still a step up and basis.
Laura Rotter: Thank you very much. I thought that was, but I wanted to make sure. On the other hand, certainly, and this is not what we're discussing, maybe you know, I'll have an elder care attorney on at some other time, but if you're doing Medicaid planning, that would be irrevocable.
Malory Lea: Yes, Lauren. Actually, I also do Medicaid planning as well on that. But an irrevocable trust for Medicaid purposes. Actually, you would get a step up in basis as well because we do include a power of appointment on the settler's death, which allows for the step up in basis for irrevocable. Let's say you do a life in, um, let's say you do a grant or trust to gift assets, to, to try to, um, use up a portion of your federal exemption out. And this is getting into maybe a little bit off topic today, but. Certain irrevocable trusts that don't have that power of appointment, that does not get a step up in basis. But we can maybe talk about that another time.
Laura Rotter: Some other time. Some other time. So, as we get towards the end of our conversation, Mallory, is there anything else specific to divorcees that you feel like we haven't mentioned?
Malory Lea: You know, I, I think we touched on most of it. I think that, you know, I just wanna say, I know. It's going through such a hard time and, and dealing with your will and your advanced directives, it's probably the last thing you want to deal with. Even not going through a divorce, you know, it's the last thing people want to deal with though, but especially going through a divorce, you're going through so much already.
And so I just wanna say, you know, I, we try to make the process as. You know, I don't wanna say fun. Nobody has fun doing it. I, I will say I enjoy my time with my clients and I enjoy being able to help them. And we try to make it as, um, pain free as possible. Um, knowing through what they're going well, everything they're going through. So that's all I wanna say.
Laura Rotter: Thank you so much for that. I can… You know, every time you and I have spoken, your giving personality comes through, and I can imagine that though it's never fun to do estate planning documents, that you make the process as easy as possible emotionally. Mallory, if people hear this and say, I'm ready to have the conversation, how can they find you? What's the best way to get in touch with you?
Malory Lea: Sure. Um, well, my phone number I can give you is 914 949 3411. Or you can email me at mlea@estatelawny.com and I'd be happy to help. And thank you Laura, so much for having me. It was a lot of fun.
Laura Rotter: I told you it would be. Thank you so much for being my guest, Mallory. I really enjoyed it.
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Mallory Lee, a trust in a estate's attorney with Cohen, Soloway and Woolridge. Some things I hope you take away from the conversation take away. Number one, estate planning documents are important no matter what, but especially in a transition such as a divorce.
Though there is a statute in New York state that revokes certain estate planning designations you may have made in the past. It only takes effect once the divorce is final. And as we all know, divorces can take quite a long time and you don't want this to be hanging over your head. In the interim. Take away number two.
If you're currently going through a divorce, don't forget to remove your spouse as your executor, and especially as your power of attorney. You don't want your ex-spouse or soon-to-be ex-spouse, to be making healthcare decisions for you in your healthcare proxy and living will. And you'll also wanna review your beneficiary designations and if needed, remove your ex-spouse from inheriting any assets.
Take away number three. Often when we put our estate planning documents together, we name siblings as secondary agents to take care of our children or to be our alternative agent under our healthcare documents or power of attorney. Please know that even when our divorce is finalized, the statute in New York would not revoke these appointments.
That's yet another reason to review all your documents when going through a divorce. The statute also doesn't revoke irrevocable provisions passing to your spouse. Mallory used the example of an irrevocable life insurance trust in place to pass to the spouse. You'll need to prepare special documents to amend, or in many cases, depending upon what state you're in, decant, this irrevocable trust.
Trust. What's decanting? Well think of it as similar to decanting wine. It's the process of pouring the assets from one trust to another. Finally, and I wanna reiterate this, Mallory noted that it's important for all of us to have estate planning documents in place to name a healthcare proxy and a power of attorney to make our healthcare decisions known in a living will to name a guardian for our minor children.
To set up trust when appropriate and to avoid the probate process, especially in states where the process can be time consuming and onerous. Are you enjoying this podcast? Please don't forget to subscribe, so you won't miss next week's episode. If you love the show, I'd so appreciate a rating and a review.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for listening to Making Change with Your Money Certified Financial Planner. Laura Rotter specializes in helping people just like you organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www.trueabundanceadvisors.com/workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.