Estate Probate and Administration

The attorneys at Karlen, Stolzar & Reimann, LLP are called upon to participate in all the life cycles of our clients. We are not only called upon to share in the joys of a birth of a child or the union of two individuals but sadly in sharing in the mourning of a loved one who is no longer with us. Our clients are more than our customers but become members of the Karlen, Stolzar & Reimann, LLP family. With a kind word and a saddened heart we can aid our clients in getting through a difficult part of their lives. We have the years of experience to make the probate (or administration) process tenable. By shouldering the burden of the mourners, we are able to expeditiously get the process commenced and able to oversee the proper management of the estate. The counselors at law of Karlen, Stolzar & Reimann, LLP as well as their staff are charged with the task of guiding the fiduciary throughout the entire probate/administration process as well as assist in the transferring of the assets which may never enter probate because they pass to another person by “operation of law” or as the result of a specific designation.

What happens when a disgruntled beneficiary or distributee (one who gets property if there had been no will) comes forward to challenge the Will or the selection of the fiduciary? Although will contests are rare, they do happen. The attorneys of Karlen, Stolzar & Reimann, LLP have experience in representing both the individual putting forth the estate for Court approval and the individual objecting to the estate before him/her.

Although they are generally not the norm, Judicial Accountings are required in some instances. Executors and Trustees have a requirement to account for their actions as fiduciaries to the beneficiaries. The attorneys at Karlen and Stolzar are skilled in drafting the annual accounting as well as representing the estate’s or client’s interests when the accounting is being reviewed by the accounting and law departments of the Surrogate’s Court.

Sometimes even with the most skilled estate plan, something needs to be adjusted. Renunciation (disclaimer) planning enables us at Karlen, Stolzar & Reimann, LLP to assist in post-death planning not only for the spouse but the children as well. An estate plan should maximize utilization of the applicable credit amount to produce the best estate tax savings posture. If, as is often the case, the applicable credit is not fully used through lifetime giving, it makes sense for the Will of the first spouse to die to create a trust to “carve out” and hold the applicable credit amount. Effective use of the applicable credit in both estates of a husband and wife can be quite significant, resulting in a significant amount of combined assets of the couple passing to their children without federal estate taxation, and ultimately reducing estate taxes on assets passing to the couple’s children. Disclaimer planning can, also, be used in multi-generational estate planning to get property to a younger generation when the first level of beneficiaries are wealthy in their own right.

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