A trust decides who controls your assets, who receives them, and whether your family waits months in Surrogate’s Court (probate) before anyone can act post your death. At Katzner Law Group, we design and draft trusts for families throughout New York, building each estate plan around your goals and concerns for your loved ones. Working with a trust lawyer in New York means your trust is properly drafted under New York’s Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL), the law that sets how a trust must be structured, executed, and which assets it controls. Because a New York trust protects only the assets actually transferred into it, we treat funding the trust as seriously as drafting it.
A New York trust lawyer designs, drafts, and helps fund the trust that carries out your estate plan, making sure each document meets New York’s signing rules and holds the assets it was created to protect. The work begins with understanding your family, your assets, and the decisions you want made on your behalf. From there, we recommend the structure that best accomplishes your goals and addresses your concerns, draft provisions for trustees and beneficiaries, supervise the signing, and guide you through transferring assets into the trust.
New York trust law runs mainly through the EPTL and the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act, not the Uniform Trust Code many other states follow. That distinction shapes everything from how a trust must be signed to whether you can revoke it later, which explains why national forms so often miss requirements specific to New York and can, at times, wholly invalidate your estate plan.
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New York law permits an express trust for any lawful purpose, so the right structure depends on what you want the trust to accomplish. Common options include:
A trust lets your family skip probate, keeps your affairs private, provides wonderful incapacity planning and, when structured as an irrevocable trust, can shield assets from future creditors and even provide tax benefits. Each benefit depends on how the trust is designed and funded.
Probate is the Surrogate’s Court process that validates a will, inventories assets, pays debts and taxes, and distributes remaining assets to beneficiaries. In New York, the probate process often lasts nine to 18 months, and longer when minor children or a business are involved. Assets held in a properly funded trust skip probate entirely. Your successor trustee steps in and manages them under the trust’s own terms, through a private proceeding referred to as trust administration, so your beneficiaries receive what you intended without waiting on a court calendar.
Every probate filing becomes a public record. Anyone can simply search online and request a New York probate file and learn who inherited, how much, and when, which exposes grieving families to scammers and opportunists. A trust keeps those details in a private document that never needs to be filed with the court. Your trustee carries out your instructions from a lawyer’s office rather than a courtroom, so the size of your estate and the names of your beneficiaries stay within the family.
A properly structured trust can keep your wealth out of reach of future creditors, both your own and your beneficiaries’. When you transfer assets into an irrevocable trust for your spouse and children, those assets no longer belong to you, so they are no longer available to satisfy a future judgment against you. The same protection extends to your loved ones. Because an inheritance held in trust stays titled in the trust’s name rather than your child’s, it remains shielded from your child’s creditors, lawsuits, and divorcing spouse. This protection works best when it is in place well before any claim arises, so families who plan early keep the most options open.
Gabriel Katzner has a track record, along with a vast number of outstanding public reviews across platforms, of working hard on behalf of individuals who need assistance with comprehensive estate planning services.
Before signing, decide what the trust must accomplish, how taxes affect your estate, how to address asset protection concerns, and who will manage your trust. Those three choices shape every provision we draft.
Start with the goal rather than the label. If your priorities are avoiding probate, keeping control, and protecting children who are not ready to manage money, a revocable living trust usually forms the foundation of the estate plan. If you need protection from future lawsuits or want life insurance proceeds kept out of your taxable estate, an irrevocable trust belongs alongside it. Many families use both. Because an irrevocable trust is difficult to undo, settle on its structure before any assets move into it.
Federal and New York estate taxes work differently. Federal law sets a basic exclusion amount under the Internal Revenue Code, while New York Tax Law sets a separate, lower exclusion, and both limits adjust periodically. New York also imposes an estate tax cliff, so an estate that exceeds its exclusion by more than a narrow margin loses the exclusion entirely. Life insurance proceeds escape income tax but still count toward your taxable estate. Assets in a revocable trust also remain part of your estate, while a properly structured irrevocable trust can reduce estate tax exposure. A trust costs more to prepare than a will, and families typically more than recover that difference by avoiding the expense of probate.
Your successor trustee steps in to manage the trust if you become incapacitated or after your death. Look for someone organized, financially responsible, and willing to take on the role, then name at least one backup in case your first choice cannot serve. Family members often serve well, though a professional trustee can make sense for a complex estate or a family where tension is likely. The trustee manages assets for your beneficiaries without owning them personally, which keeps trust property separate from the trustee’s own finances.
Our role covers the full process, from the first design conversation through the day your last asset is retitled into the trust.
New York requires a lifetime trust to be in writing and signed by its creator, who must be 18 or older, and by a trustee if the creator is not the sole trustee, either before a notary or in front of two witnesses. We draft each trust to fit your family, review it with you page by page, and coordinate the signing.
Signing creates the trust, but funding, which means transferring your assets into the trust’s name, is what makes it work. Under EPTL 7-1.18, a New York trust controls only the assets actually transferred into it. Funding a home means recording a new deed, while bank and brokerage accounts are retitled to the trust. You can add or remove assets as your life changes, and we can guide you through any future transfers.
Once you select your trustees, we build their roles into the trust itself. That includes naming successor trustees in order, defining the events that trigger a handoff, such as incapacity, and spelling out the powers each trustee holds to manage, invest, and distribute trust assets. Clear provisions prevent gaps in authority and reduce the chance of disagreement later. When you serve as your own initial trustee, your successor takes over under the trust’s own terms rather than through a court appointment.
The right time to hire a trust lawyer in New York is before a life event forces the question, such as a new child, a marriage, a home purchase, or a change in health. Many people assume trusts are only for the wealthy, yet the deciding factor is what your family would go through without one, not a net-worth threshold. Parents of minor children, blended families, business owners, and anyone who owns real estate typically gain the most. For each of these families, a trust works best when it is created and funded while you are healthy and able to make every decision yourself.
Call Katzner Law Group today at (646) 736-7539 or schedule a consultation to start building a trust that protects your family. Working with a trust lawyer in New York gives you an estate plan built around your goals and concerns for your loved ones, executed correctly and fully funded. Take the first step toward keeping your family out of court and your affairs private.
In 2002, Gabriel Katzner, the founding partner of Katzner Law Group received his Juris Doctorate with honors from the Fordham University School of Law. After spending the first 7 years of his legal career practicing at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, an international law firm based in New York, he went on to found his own firm.
Gabriel Katzner has a track record, along with a vast number of outstanding public reviews across platforms, of working hard on behalf of individuals who need assistance with comprehensive estate planning services. Finding a lawyer who is knowledgeable about revocable and irrevocable trust planning, guardianship for minor children, asset protection, trust administration and probate, as well as Medi-Cal / Medicaid planning is extremely important.
Years of experience: More than 17 years
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The cost depends on the estate plan you choose, and our fee is flat and agreed to in advance. We do not bill by the hour, so you can ask every question you have without worrying about a growing bill. You can read more about how we price our services on our legal fees page.
New York does not require a lawyer, but a trust that is improperly structured, misses signing formalities or is never funded will not avoid probate. Online trusts are often poorly drafted (ex. They typically leave money outright and unprotected to beneficiaries where the money will be exposed to a divorcing spouse or other creditor), signed and then left empty, which leaves every asset exposed to the court process the trust was meant to prevent. A lawyer experienced in estate planning and all the nuance that comes with it makes sure your trust is valid and actually holds your assets and also accomplishes your estate planning goals and addresses your estate planning concerns.
You can change or revoke a revocable living trust at any time, provided the document states that it is revocable. Under EPTL 7-1.16, a New York lifetime trust is irrevocable unless it expressly provides otherwise.
Yes. A pour-over will catches any asset left outside your trust and directs it into the trust at your death. Assets passing under that will still go through probate, so the will works as a safety net rather than a substitute for funding. At Katzner Law Group, we coordinate your will and trust so the two documents work together as one estate plan.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. Furthermore, it has received approval from attorney Gabriel Katzner, an experienced estate planning lawyer with over 17 years of legal expertise.