Anthony S. Park

We get this question quite often – can you sell your inherited property? The answer to this depends on many factors. First, you need to figure out if you can sell an inherited property. Here are a few steps for you to take to answer this, before you can decide if you need a probate lawyer or professional executor. Check the deed to confirm you inherit First, check the deed to see if the decedent a...

Since we do so many probates, we see what parts of your planning actually helped with probate (dos), and which ones didn’t really matter (don't bothers). We are reviewing this info so that you don’t spend too much of your valuable time on planning that won’t help all that much. This is based on our annual executor check in calls, in which we hear from our clients who have well intended plans to ga...

As you can imagine, probating a hoarder’s estate adds a few more complications. In this episode, we will talk about how to deal with some of the main challenges. A hoarder can be defined as someone that likes to keep a lot of things; those that hold on to items with little value. As an executor, we define it as a situation where it’s abnormally difficult to navigate the living quarters. For exampl...

Could you imagine doing a ton of work and not getting paid? It’s frustrating, but it happens. One of the drawbacks of nonprofessional executors is they are more likely to lose their executor fee, despite doing months, even years, of work for the estate. In this podcast, we are going to discuss a few real-world instances where this happened. We want to help you see that this can happen and that you...

Here’s a mental exercise to put yourself in the shoes of your bitcoin heirs. The underlying assumption is that your heirs know nothing or know way less than you do about bitcoin. Many bitcoiners have a pretty deep knowledge of bitcoin, self-custody, operational security, and so on. And you may be so deep down the rabbit hole that you forget how daunting and confusing bitcoin can be. Maybe by the t...

It’s understandable that beneficiary designations seem like an excellent and easy estate planning tool. But from our experience, when someone actually dies, beneficiary designations are often bad news. We’ll describe a few reasons why beneficiary designations cause problems in probate when estate plans become reality. Then you can decide for yourself if beneficiary designations are worth the risk....

Tax clearance is taking even longer lately because of a new twist: 1040 verification. Everyone agrees it’s important to keep the tax bogeyman satisfied, but all these layers of delays are frustrating our clients and us. Below we'll explain what’s happening here. What is tax clearance and why does it take so long? The executor needs to make sure that the IRS agrees no more taxes are due. This is im...

How do you sell a probate co-op, when the estate has no other cash? Why does the estate need cash? To pay for all the preparations, such as movers to clean out the property , cleaners, contractors for minimum renovations to make the property marketable, and more. For some houses, cash buyers/investors may be an option. But for other houses and the many co-ops in NYC , it’s not an option. Sell pers...

If you’re a solo ager and you must use a power of attorney (POA), make it as limited as possible. We received the following from a solo ager listener: “You state in your book that a financial power of attorney is not necessary if there’s a solid living trust in place. (I don’t feel the risk of abuse is a critical concern in my case). However, my lawyer says I need to name one.”- Lori This attorney...

A placeholder bitcoin inheritance plan may be the solution to spur bitcoiners into action, rather than pursuing a “perfect” plan. Instead of holding off on a plan until it’s perfect, have a placeholder plan in the meantime in case anything happens to you while you are still perfecting your inheritance plan. Perfect is the enemy of done, and using a placeholder plan may help avoid overthinking and...

How do you find a trustworthy fiduciary to make end of life decisions for you if you’re a solo ager? We get these questions often from our solo ager clients and followers: “What provisions may be made if someone has no healthcare proxy?“ “When there is no one to take care of you as you age and you become ill, how can you ever find a fiduciary you can trust?” We’ll review the problem, the lack of o...

What information are heirs entitled to, and how often can they request it? There is a delicate balance for executors to keep heirs in the loop without draining their time or estate resources in constantly responding to inquiries. Executor vs. beneficiary rights Why is it important to balance executor and beneficiary rights? If heirs demand too much, an overwhelmed executor may make errors with act...

Heirs often want to know if there is any way to get their inheritance faster. Probate can take a long time , for various reasons , and lately it has been taking even longer because IRS delays are making tax clearance even slower . So, here are some options for heirs in a cash crunch. Expense reimbursements First, the executor can pay expense reimbursements as soon as possible. This includes reimbu...

What are some less costly alternatives for a managed multi-sig bitcoin inheritance plan ? Why poor man’s multi-sig? A multi-sig setup is good for inheritance purposes, because multiple keys are needed to access your funds. This way, there’s no pressure on one single keyholder to have high-level security. In a multi-sig, if one person loses their key, an attacker or hacker can’t do much without the...

E303 How to Choose an Executor Who Will Accept A common question from our Solo Agers is: does my executor have to accept? Because our Solo Agers spend a LOT of time carefully choosing who will be their executor, it would be terrible if that carefully chosen one decides to not even serve! Our Solo Agers understand the significance about who they choose, and they take it very seriously. We touched o...

What is the minimum estate size that a professional executor will accept? A few prospective clients have called asking, so we’ll review bank executor minimums, our minimums, and some exceptions. Bank executor estate minimum size requirements Typically, bank minimum sizes are high . In New York, it has been as high as 5 million or 2 million liquid assets held with the institution. In most cases, th...

Economic recession affects probate, just as much as wages, gas, and your grocery bill. We’ll share a few ways we’ve seen how it’s been impacting probates. Takes longer to collect probate assets First, there are major delays in collecting assets. Banks, brokerages, unclaimed funds, etc. are taking way longer than usual to process claims and release funds. They are asking for more documents and are...

A shared Bitcoin family wallet sounds like a simple way for your heirs to inherit upon your death. We’ll discuss the advantages of this setup, as well as some important drawbacks. What is a Bitcoin family wallet? It is a shared Bitcoin wallet, but not a multisig wallet . It is a singlesig wallet/device/app that multiple family members have access to. Hot wallet example: husband, wife, and kids use...

Sometimes a revocable trust makes great sense for a solo ager estate plan. Generally, revocable trusts aren’t so great in New York, because they can be hard to fully fund. The main goal of a revocable trust is to avoid probate. Since revocable trusts are hard to fully fund, the goal of avoiding probate is not usually met. Here are a few reasons a revocable trust may nonetheless work for a solo age...

Which offer for probate real estate is better: an experienced investor cash buyer, or an individual financed offer that’s supposedly $80,000 more? In a recent case, turns out the individual offer was actually more like $30,000 (~3.5%) higher, plus tons of headaches and delays. Nitpicked during buyer’s inspection Individual buyers heavily nitpick during inspections. Unlike an investor, the individu...

Here’s what I learned about bitcoin inheritance at the recent Adopting Bitcoin conference in El Salvador ( my full bitcoin inheritance presentation here ). Background: (1) One year ago, El Salvador was the first country in world to make bitcoin legal tender, and (2) these conferences tend to be attended by the most hardcore bitcoiners, not so much the everyday users. How does Chivo wallet work for...

We’ll discuss a recent case study of how bad neighbors can harm probate real estate sale, and how to deal with them. Bad neighbor blames estate for water leak I am the professional executor for an estate with real estate that needs to be sold. During this process, we’ve had a neighbor with complaints. First, the neighbor blamed our unit for a water leak. He had water damage in his unit, and he tho...

After many months (maybe years), the estate is finally nearly finished. What are the final steps to close probate? We’ll explain the accounting, receipt and releases, and the reserve. What is the estate accounting? The estate accounting are the full books and records of everything that has transpired during the executor’s duty of administering the estate. It accounts for every dollar in and out, e...

How do you find the original will after someone dies? We’ll cover where to search, how to get access, and what happens if you can’t find the original. Did the attorney keep the original will? It is common for an attorney to hold the original will. If you have a copy of the will, the lawyer’s name is usually written on it. You can look for the name on the backer, or maybe he was a witness or the no...

Choosing an executor can be very difficult if you feel you don’t have many choices, especially if you own non-traditional assets such as Bitcoin. We previously discussed this topic, generally ( https://anthonyspark.com/help-i-dont-have-an-executor-for-my-will/ ), but what about Bitcoin? Whether it’s because your friends and family lack knowledge, or because you don’t want to leave behind stress or...