Estate Planning

Planning is the one area where the cost of doing nothing is paid entirely by someone else.

Overview

An estate plan is a set of instructions for people who will be acting without you. Its job is to make those decisions obvious at a moment when the people you love are least equipped to work them out.

Loom Light Legal prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney and health care directives for individuals and families across New York, and advises on the orderly transfer of what you have built. The work is less about tax mechanics for most people than about clarity: who decides, who receives, and how the transition happens without a dispute.

Situations we handle

Where people usually start.

You have no will, or the one you have was written in another state or another decade.

You have children and need to name who would raise them and who would manage money for them.

You want to spare your family a contested or drawn-out administration.

You are planning for long-term care and want to understand the options before a crisis forces one.

You have been named executor or agent and are not sure what the role actually requires.

Where it goes wrong

The mistakes that cost the most.

Leaving beneficiary designations unchecked

Retirement accounts and life insurance pass to whoever is named on the form, not to whoever is named in the will. A designation left unchanged after a divorce or a death is one of the most common and most painful errors in estate planning.

Signing documents nobody can find

An original will that cannot be located can cause real difficulty, and copies are not always a straightforward substitute. Where documents are kept, and who knows how to reach them, is part of the plan rather than an afterthought.

Naming the wrong person out of politeness

The eldest child is not automatically the right executor, and the closest friend is not automatically the right health care agent. These are jobs with real demands, and choosing to avoid an awkward conversation now reliably creates a harder one later.

Our process

How the matter moves.

Tell us what matters

Who depends on you, what you own, and what you want to happen. In your own words, without a form to fill in first.

Review what exists

Current documents, deeds, and every beneficiary designation, so the plan works as one piece rather than several contradictory ones.

Agree the plan

A written scope and fixed fee where possible, so you know the cost before drafting starts.

Draft and execute

Documents prepared, explained in plain terms, and signed with the formalities New York requires.

Keep it current

A plan is only as good as its last review. We tell you what should trigger one, and store things so they can be found.

Begin

Speak with Dale Riedel.

Tell us what is happening in a few sentences. We will tell you whether it is something we handle, what the realistic options are, and what it costs to find out more.