Comprehensive Legal Services

Receive sound legal advice and effective legal representation from the attorneys of Zerafa & Candela P.C. We offer expertise in many areas of law. Our legal services in Harrison, NY, include:

Estate Planning – Wills, Trusts, and Estates

Two of the most important goals of our clients are (1) creating an effective estate plan and (2) protecting and preserving their assets for future generations.

The estate planning attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. will work with you to create a custom-tailored estate plan, incorporating your unique family dynamics. From simple wills to complex estate plans, including Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts, our attorneys are here to help you. We will review your assets to determine what, if any, techniques are available so that your estate can pass to your beneficiaries in the most tax-effective and efficient manner.

Our most important goal is client satisfaction. The best way to achieve client satisfaction is to prepare a comprehensive estate plan. Our estate planning attorneys use the “team approach” to estate planning. They work not only with the client but with the client’s accountant, life insurance agent, and financial advisor to create an effective, comprehensive estate plan.

As estate planning practitioners, our attorneys work from the very beginning to draft documents to protect against a will contest. Our comprehensive intake and family history, as well as lengthy meetings with clients and formal execution ceremonies, help to ensure our clients’ wishes are carried out. While you cannot do away with the possibility of someone bringing a lawsuit, our practices and procedures help to minimize the threat of a successful challenge to a will.

Our Estate Planning Services Include:

  • Last Will and Testament
  • Health Care Proxy
  • Living Will
  • Power of Attorney
  • Revocable Living Trusts
  • Irrevocable Trusts
  • Life Insurance Trusts
  • Charitable Planning

Elder Law and Medicaid Planning

Skyrocketing medical costs can wipe out your life savings. With the cost of health care on the rise, regardless of your net worth, you should consider protecting your assets for your family. The elder law attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. use proven planning techniques to assist you in preserving your assets. Our attorneys will work with you to ensure you understand the best way to protect your home and life savings.

Planning for a disabled family member can be challenging. Oftentimes, our clients have children, grandchildren, or other individuals they wish to leave a portion of their estate to who are disabled. Our attorneys work with our clients to implement a plan to preserve an inheritance for the intended beneficiary in a manner that does not jeopardize his or her public benefits.

Our Elder Law and Special Needs Services Include:

  • Medicaid Qualifying Trusts
  • Special Needs Trusts
  • Medicaid Applications
  • Supplemental Needs Trusts

Probate and Estate Administration

When a loved one passes away, the probate and estate administration attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. are experienced in representing and working with the family of a decedent and guiding them through the probate and estate administration process.

If an individual dies with a will, our attorneys will assist the executor through the surrogate’s court probate and estate administration process, including petitioning the court to appoint an executor and grant letters testamentary, obtaining asset valuations, gathering the decedent’s assets, establishing an estate bank account, preparing and filing of estate tax returns and possible payment of estate taxes as well as the eventual distribution of the decedent’s estate in accordance with the terms of the will.

If an individual dies without a will (intestate), their assets will pass through intestate succession. Our probate and estate administration attorneys will guide the administrator through a process known in the courts as an administrative proceeding.

Even estates of decedents with a revocable living trust require the trust to be administered and possible estate tax returns prepared and filed. Our attorneys will assist the trustees in carrying out the terms of the trust, whether it is continued management of the trust or distribution of its principal.

Our caring and committed attorneys work with the estate representatives in navigating their fiduciary duties during all phases of the administration process.

Trust Administration

We counsel trustees on their many responsibilities in keeping with their fiduciary duty and guide them through the Trust administration process for both Inter Vivos and Testamentary Trusts.

We work with our trustees to prepare and file accountings as well as preparing Receipt and Release Agreements upon trust termination.

We also counsel beneficiaries on their rights, including compelling a trustee to account as well as the potential removal of a trustee for breach of fiduciary duty, including the duty of care and duty of loyalty to the beneficiary.

Residential Real Estate Transactions

Thinking of buying or selling a home, condo, or co-op? Let the real estate attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. represent you in one of the most important financial decisions of your life. Whether it is negotiating the contract of sale or resolving title exceptions, our attorneys are well prepared to protect your interests. Our attorneys also advise and guide clients with respect to lease and rental agreements.

We assist many of our probate and estate administration clients in the sale of property owned by the estate of a deceased loved one and provide guidance on the income and estate tax implications of a proposed transaction.

Business Succession Planning

Are you a closely held business owner? Are you a general or limited partner in a partnership? If so, have you considered what will happen to the business if you are unable to work anymore, whether due to death, disability, or retirement? Are you concerned about the distribution of your estate between children who work in the family business and those who do not?

The knowledgeable and experienced attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. will help guide you through the planning process for the seamless transition of your business ownership from one generation to the next. Carefully drafted buy-sell agreements, operating agreements, or partnership agreements can provide for the stability and continuity of the family business. We will work with your other advisors to create a custom-tailored business succession plan that makes sense for your business and family.

Our attorneys work closely with clients, whether they are business owners looking to consolidate business operations, perhaps through the use of a family limited partnership, fiduciaries of estates or trusts looking to maximize deductions and increase principal and income to distribute to beneficiaries, individual clients looking to either minimize estate taxes through charitable planning or the creation of a private foundation, or maximize asset preservation through elder law/Medicaid planning, and design plans to best meet their goals.

Guardianships

Caring for loved ones when they have become incapacitated can be a complicated and emotionally draining affair. Unfortunately, it is often necessary because, left to their own devices, incapacitated loved ones can jeopardize their own health and financial well-being.

The attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. have the experience and compassion to help guide you through the guardianship process, whether it be for an elderly family member or an incapacitated child. No two guardianship applications are alike, and our attorneys will carefully tailor a guardianship petition to fit the needs of the incapacitated person.

Our guardianship experience includes assisting:

  • Adult children seeking guardianship over parents who can no longer care for themselves.
  • Parents of children who were injured at birth, during medical procedures, or in accidents.
  • Parents of children with autism and other disabilities who are seeking guardianship before the child turns eighteen (18) and is no longer a minor.
  • Parents of minor children who stand to inherit assets of a decedent.

The granting of guardianship over another is not something that the courts take lightly, and neither should you. Our experienced attorneys can advise you on your powers, rights, and responsibilities if you believe a loved one is in need of guardianship.

Occasionally family members are not in agreement as to who would be the best guardian or if there is even a need for guardianship. Let our attorneys represent you in the process and advocate your position to the court.

In addition to petitioning the court for guardianship, we also petition the court for other relief as necessary by the circumstances, including:

Petitioning the court for the use of guardianship funds for the purchase of handicap-accessible transportation or even the renovation or purchase of a handicap-accessible home for your disabled family member.

The creation of a court-approved special needs trust for your disabled family member.

Estate Litigation

The estate litigation attorneys at Zerafa & Candela P.C. are experienced in representing executors, beneficiaries, and those left out of a decedent’s will. Unfortunately, there are individuals who will prey on others, taking advantage of a situation for their own financial gain. If someone has taken advantage of your loved one, call our attorneys today.

Our attorneys understand the unique rules and procedures of the surrogate’s court and will advise you of your rights and advocate on your behalf.

Our Estate Litigation Services Include:

  • Will Contest - Individuals who believe they have been adversely affected by a will have an opportunity to object to the probate of the will in surrogate’s court. Depending upon the circumstances, you may have to proceed very quickly to preserve your rights. Do not delay and contact one of our estate litigation attorneys right away.
  • Grounds for a Will Contest Can Include - Lack of mental capacity of the testator, improper execution/improper drafting, fraud, undue influence, forgery, and mistake.
  • Turnover Proceeding - Demanding either a fiduciary or individual transfer assets back into an estate that was improperly removed at an earlier time.
  • Accounting Proceeding - Compelling a fiduciary to account (i.e., explain each and every estate transaction). We also represent fiduciaries in defending their accounts.
  • Fiduciary Removal Proceeding - Seeking to remove an executor who is unfit to serve as fiduciary.
  • Spousal Rights Proceedings - Representing spouses and ensuring they receive the proper proportion of their deceased spouse’s estate (elective share) in accordance with the laws of New York State.
  • Will Construction Proceedings - A court proceeding whereby the court will determine the intent of the decedent by reviewing and clarifying the terms of a will.
  • Wrongful Death Compromises - Assisting a fiduciary in pursuing an action for wrongful death while working with the surrogate’s court in the collection and eventual distribution of any settlement proceeds.