A special needs trust (also called a supplemental needs trust, or SNT) in New York is a legal arrangement, authorized by EPTL 7-1.12, that holds assets for the benefit of a person with a disability without disqualifying that person from means-tested government benefits such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Because the trust — not the beneficiary — owns
For most New Yorkers, the honest answer is: a revocable living trust if your goal is to avoid probate, keep your affairs private, and plan for incapacity — and an irrevocable trust if your goal is to reduce estate tax, protect assets from creditors, or qualify for Medicaid down the road. The two tools solve different problems. A revocable trust
Protecting your assets with a trust in New York means using a legal arrangement — governed by the New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (EPTL) Article 7 — to hold property for the benefit of yourself or others, so that those assets avoid probate, stay private, and (with the right structure) gain protection from creditors, long-term-care costs, or estate
An irrevocable trust is one of the most reliable tools New Yorkers use to protect a home and savings from the cost of long-term care, but it only works if you fund it early enough to clear the Medicaid 5-year look-back. In plain terms: assets you transfer into a properly drafted irrevocable Medicaid trust are no longer counted as yours
To fund a trust in New York, you must legally transfer ownership of your assets out of your individual name and into the name of your trust — retitling bank and brokerage accounts, deeding real property, and updating beneficiary designations so they coordinate with your plan. This is the single most important step in trust planning, because an unfunded trust
Yes. A properly drafted and fully funded revocable living trust avoids probate in New York for every asset titled in the name of the trust. When you die, those assets pass directly to your beneficiaries under the terms of the trust, administered privately by your successor trustee — with no court filing, no public record, and no wait for a