The Law Office of David Stern

Since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, people have felt confident that they’ll be spared an estate tax hit when they die. This might not be the case at all.

Our lives are increasingly digital. Many of us have gone largely paperless with bank and other financial statements. Bills of all kinds arrive by email and are paid online. Our photos, music, movies, and documents sit on phones and computers and are backed up to the cloud. We spend substantial portions of our days on Facebook, using Gmail, listening to Spotify, networking through LinkedIn, scrolling through Twitter, buying on Amazon, and on and on. Well, what happens to all this when we pass away? 

I know New Year’s resolutions are cliché, but there are reasons that they persist in our minds as each new year rolls around. I think we all like the idea of a new beginning. A clean slate offers endless possibilities, and that’s an exciting prospect!

What happens if you decide to draft your own will?

All day long I think about death. I suppose, that’s just the way life goes as an attorney specializing in trusts and estates. Maybe that’s why I find it so easy to talk about the consequences of death with my clients. Good thing too! Otherwise I’d be a pretty terrible attorney.