Family
What is Estate Planning and Why Do You Need It?

What is estate planning? Many people don’t know the answer to this question, and that’s why it’s so important to have a solid estate plan in place. Estate planning is organizing and managing your assets in the event of your death. This includes everything from your home and car to your savings and investments. It can be difficult, but ensuring that your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone is crucial. We will discuss some of the most important aspects of estate planning and why you need to do it now, even if you think you’re too young!
The Basics
Estate planning is organizing and managing your assets in the event of your death. This includes everything from your home and car to your savings and investments. It can be difficult, but ensuring that your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone is crucial.
Some people think estate planning is only for the wealthy, but that’s not true. Everyone can benefit from having a plan in place. If you die without a will or estate plan, your property will be delegated by following the state’s regulations. This may not be how you would want your things to be handled, so it’s important to have a say in what happens to your belongings after you die.
Estate planning can be simple or complex, depending on your needs. For example, you may only need a basic will to state how you want your assets to be distributed. Or, you might need a more complex plan if you have many assets or want to minimize taxes and probate costs.
Why You Need Estate Planning
There are many reasons why you need to have an estate plan, even if you’re young and healthy. Death is unpredictable, and it can happen at any time. With that in mind, handling all the property is an absolute must. Who will get what, what will be sold, and what money will be divided among beneficiaries. All these questions are answered in an estate planning plan.
In addition, estate planning can help you plan for incapacity. If you become incapacitated and don’t have a plan, your family will have to go through the courts to make decisions on your behalf. This can be costly and time-consuming. With an estate plan, you can designate someone to make financial and medical decisions for you if you cannot do so yourself.
Estate planning is crucial to ensuring that your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone. So don’t wait to get started on your estate plan.
Do You Need Legal Help With Estate Planning?
Estate planning can be simple or complex, depending on your needs. For example, you may only need a basic will to state how you want your assets to be distributed. Or, you might need a more complex plan if you have many assets or want to minimize taxes and probate costs.
How to Conduct Estate Planning Properly?
If you’re ready to start estate planning, the first step is to inventory your assets.
Start Early
It’s never too early to start estate planning. You might not think you need an estate plan if you’re young and healthy. But death is unpredictable, and it can happen at any time. In addition, estate planning can help you plan for incapacity.
Gather a Team of Legal Professionals
You’ll also need to gather a team of legal professionals to help you with your estate planning. This should include an experienced estate planning attorney, a financial advisor, and a CPA. Once you have your team in place, you can begin creating your estate plan. Your attorney will help you determine what documents you need, and your financial advisor can help you figure out how to protect your assets best.
Create a Plan That Meets Your Needs
Your estate plan should be tailored to your specific needs and goals. You’ll need to consider your assets, your family situation, your wishes for how you want your things to be handled after you die, and more. Once you understand what you want to accomplish with your estate plan, you can begin to put together the documents you need. Common estate planning documents include wills, trusts, advance directives, and powers of attorney. Your attorney can help you decide which documents are right for you.
Enlist Your Assets
After you’ve gathered your team and created a plan, it’s time to start putting your estate plan into action. This includes funding any trusts you’ve created and transferred ownership of your assets into those trusts. You’ll also need to update your beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and other financial accounts.
Pay all the Taxes
Estate taxes can be a big concern for many people, but they can be minimized with proper planning. Your attorney and financial advisor can help you determine what steps you need to take to minimize your estate tax liability.
Medical Care Delegation
If you become incapacitated, it’s important to plan who will make decisions about your medical care. You can accomplish this through the use of a power of attorney or an advance directive. Deciding where you will get medical attention and who will take care of your life’s financial aspects if you can’t is an important part of estate planning.
Ensuring the Security of Assets
Once you’ve put your estate plan into place, reviewing it periodically and ensuring that it still meets your needs is important. This is especially true if you have a major life event, such as getting married, having a child, or buying a new home. Your estate planning team can help you make necessary changes to your plan.
Eliminates Probate and Privacy Issues
Probate is the court-supervised process of distributing a person’s assets after death. Probation can be costly and time-consuming, so many try to avoid it. There are several ways to do this, including creating trust. Another concern for many people is privacy. Wills are public documents, which means that anyone can see them. If you want to keep your estate plan private, this can be a problem. Trusts are not public documents, so they offer more privacy.
Consulting Local Regulation
Estate planning can be complex, and it’s important to get professional help to create your plan correctly. In addition, you’ll need to consult with local regulations to ensure that your plan meets all the requirements.
The Benefits of Working With an Attorney
Working with an attorney has many benefits when creating your estate plan. One of the most important benefits is that your attorney can help you create a comprehensive plan that meets your unique needs. For example, you might have specific wishes for the distribution of your assets, or you must take steps to minimize tax and probate costs. An experienced estate planning attorney will advise you on achieving your goals.
Another benefit of working with an attorney is that they can help you navigate the legal process. The laws surrounding estate planning can be complex, and it’s important to have someone on your side who knows the ins and outs of the law. This will ensure that your estate plan is created correctly and efficiently.
Protecting the Beneficiaries of Your Estate Plan
One of the most important aspects of estate planning is protecting the beneficiaries of your plan. This includes ensuring that your assets are distributed according to your wishes and that your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone.
For example, you can create a trust to hold your assets and protect your loved ones from probate. A trust can also help you minimize taxes on your estate and provide asset protection in case of lawsuits or creditors. Trusts can be complex, so working with an attorney is important to ensure they are created correctly.
Create the Plan Yourself or Hire an Attorney?
Estate planning can be complex, and it’s important to ensure everything is done correctly. For this reason, many people choose to work with an attorney. However, there are some estate planning tasks that you can do yourself. These include creating a will, designating beneficiaries on financial accounts, and creating a power of attorney. If you decide to do your estate planning, be sure to do some research and understand the process before getting started.
End-of-Life Planning
End-of-life planning is an important part of estate planning. This includes making decisions about your medical care and funeral arrangements. For example, you’ll need to consider your wishes for medical treatment, whether you want to be buried or cremated, and who you want to handle your final arrangements.
Estate planning is an important process that everyone should go through. It can help you protect your assets, minimize taxes, and ensure your wishes are fulfilled after death. You can create an estate plan or work with an attorney to get the job done. Either way, start early and take inventory of your assets. Then, with a little planning, you can ensure that your estate is in good hands.
Events
The Pepsi 125 Diner

In celebrating its 125th birthday, Pepsi is opening a unique pop-up restaurant for a limited time in NYC.
The Pepsi 125 Diner will open at a location in Midtown Manhattan TBA on October 19 and remain open until October 25. The secret entrance promises to be “instagram worthy.” The Pepsi themed American diner will serve timeless diner inspired dishes alongside a vast selection of Pepsi inspired offerings.
This fascinating immersive journey will have you traveling back in time through every era of Pepsi and get a glimpse into the future! A 3-course meal will consist of delectable diner classics with an innovative Pepsi twist. Specially crafted cocktails and mocktails will also be available. This experience states it goes beyond food and drink but brings together the connection between Pepsi and the world of pop music and culture through spectacular performances and rare memorabilia.
The diner is open to all ages with a duration time of approximately two hours. Ticket prices are set to start at $50, this will include appetizer, entree, dessert, and unlimited Pepsi soft drinks.
Tickets went on sale to the public and were snatched up ASAP, however there is a waitlist at feverup.com.
Events
Indigenous Climate Warriors in Times Square

(Photo by Honor the Earth)
On Tuesday September 19, 2023, the Indigenous peoples took to the frontlines of the climate crisis on Turtle Island and took over Times Square painting a giant mural with the message, “No Green Colonialism; Land Back NOW!”
This mural came the day before the UN Climate Ambition Summit, where world leaders are expected to come together and make decisions around the climate crisis.
The Indigenous communities are organizing to push back on the Biden Administration’s push toward solutions to the climate crisis that threaten the lives of Indigenous people across Turtle Island, which they call “Green Colonialism.” “For too long, Native lands and communities have borne the brunt of harm from mining and other extractive industries. As the federal government moves to support clean energy development, this cannot come at the expense of clean water or Indigenous rights. This familiar assault on Native lands and communities is another wave of colonialism, and we will not stand by and allow our lands to be sacrificed,” Krystal Two Bulls, executive director of the national Indigenous organization Honor the Earth said in a press release.
The mining projects violate treaty rights and threaten clean water and land in places such as Thacker Pass, Oak Flat , and the Talon-Tamarak mine near the Mississippi headwaters.
We should all be fighting this fight!
Food and Drink
White Wine for Summer Send Off

It is hard to believe that summer is officially wrapping up. But as days get shorter there is still plenty of time to toast the season in style with these favorite white wines.
Kenwood Vineyards Six Ridges Chardonnay 2019
This refreshing chardonnay crisp apple and crunchy peach flavors is electrifying and oh, so yummy! It brings out the feeling of velvet caressing you. This is simmply all of the best the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County has to offer.
Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc
Divinely balanced wine with zesty aromas and highlights of pink grapefruit, melon and gooseberry. It refreshing and perfectly sweet. Every sip will have you singing praises to the wonderful summer you just had.
Entertainment
Beatles Brunch at City Winery Where Strawberry Fields Lives Forever

I was taken to City Winery by Eli Marcus for the Beatles Brunch with Strawberry Fields.
This show plays every Sunday with an unlimited brunch buffet that includes coffee, tea and juice, starting at noon. A bottomless brunch cocktail package is also available and children get in free. Here tourists mingle with New Yorkers, eating scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, dried out French toast, spicy potatoes with onions and peppers, perfectly done chicken, salad and fresh fruit. What is so nice, is that everyone seems happy to to be here, to see and hear the Fab Four.
The show starts off without fan fare. The lights dim and four men enter, not quite looking like the originals. Tony Garofalo (John Lennon), Billy J. Ray (Paul McCartney), Ira Siegel (George Harrison), and Michael Bellusci (Ringo Starr) and their costumes and wigs have seen better days. Then the music starts. You can watch one of our video’s here.
From the early hits like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” “Ticket To Ride” “Eight Days A Week” and more the first act is nostalgia at it’s best. It was adorable to watch the audience, especially the young ones “Twist and Shout.”
After a break in came the Sergeant Pepper era, clothing and all. From that we got “Nowhere Man,” “My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “When I’m 64,” “Penny Lane” and songs that dig into your soul. They are done well and the Beatles live again. You can see our video here.
Then the later songs like “I Am The Walrus” and “Don’t Let Me Down” end a show that is almost two hour long of music, that is classic. I have to admit I wanted to hear “Blackbird” and “Norwegian Wood,” but what you get is a well rounded assortment of those songs that shaped several era’s.
Ira Siegel stands out with his guitar playing that is out of this world. I really loved all the songs he sang as well.
Michael Bellusci, gives Ringo a run for his money on the drums.
Tony Garofalo is the founder, creator and producer playing rhythm and lead guitar and singing lead vocals along with Alan LeBoeuf from the original Beatlemania playing bass guitar. Ray looks the most like the Beatle he is playing.
Strawberry Fields has been covering The Beatles for over three decades. They used to have a residency at B.B. Kings, but these days their home base is City Winery and it is definitely a great way to spend a Sunday. All four are consummate musicians and obviously have a love for what they do and that rubs off on their audience.
For a souvenir up a City Winery Strawberry Fields Rose Wine and have it signed by the cast. With its is its strawberry pink color, you get a combination of kiwi, watermelon and the taste of strawberry that lingers.
City Winery is right next to Little Island, Chelsea Market, The Highline, the Meatpacking district, Chelsea, and West Village. Everything is nearby to make a perfect outing for the whole day and this is one brunch where you definitely get your money’s worth. Click HERE for tickets
Events
A Fun Night at Dave and Buster’s 42nd Street

Thank-you again to Eli Marcus and the staff of Dave and Buster’s, at 234 West 42nd Street.
Eli was sending the concierge’s to the show The Shark Is Broken.
There were lots of new friends to be made such as Carol Mennie, Caroline Rosado from the Hilton, Dinnella Collado from the Washington Square Hotel, Benjamin Maddy from Dave and Buster’s and Michaela Paratore of Benjamin Steakhouse Prime
This destination for sports enthusiasts, foodies, and arcade offers space, fun and some fabulous happy hour deals.
All across the multiple screens were football, basketball, and hockey games from across the sporting world. At the sports bar an impressive selection of drinks, including craft beers, signature cocktails await. I sampled some their tasty bites and was impressed.
To sooth your inner child air hockey and arcade games are waiting to be played.
If you are looking for entertainment they have a legendary Trivia Night with fantastic prizes.
This is actually a great place to throw your holiday parties.
I am so glad the Mayor of Times Square invited me to his event.
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