Below Chambers Street the Apartment Is a Condominium, and Half the Owners Live Somewhere Else

Generally yes, and the difference is significant. A condominium unit is real property transferred by deed, so no board approval is required to sell it or to distribute it to a beneficiary. Most condominium declarations reserve a right of first refusal, which lets the board match a sale rather than block it, and it is seldom exercised. A co-operative, by contrast, is shares in a corporation and every transfer requires board consent, which routinely adds months to an administration. For planning, the condominium is also far easier to place into a trust.

As things stand, probably yes. Real property in New York is generally administered under New York law, which means an ancillary proceeding in New York County in addition to the primary proceeding in your home state — two sets of filings, two sets of fees, two timetables. The usual solution is a revocable trust that holds the apartment: property held by the trust passes under the trust instrument rather than through any court, and the New York proceeding disappears. The trust has to be funded, meaning the deed actually transferred, not merely mentioned.

Potentially large. For a non-resident who is not a United States citizen, the federal exemption applicable to United States-situs assets is far lower than the amount available to citizens, and a Manhattan apartment can exceed it on its own. New York's own estate tax applies to real property located here regardless of domicile. Estate tax treaties with some countries change the analysis. This is one of the few areas where the structure chosen before purchase makes a decisive difference and where remedies afterwards are limited, so it is worth a specific review rather than a general plan.

It depends entirely on the plan document, and the answers differ widely. Some plans accelerate vesting on death; some forfeit unvested awards outright; some continue the schedule with the estate as holder. Options usually have a limited exercise window measured from the date of death, and missing it destroys the value. Partnership and carried interests frequently restrict transfer altogether and may require the fund's consent or provide for a buy-out at a formula price. We ask for the plan documents at the planning stage precisely because these terms cannot be inferred from a statement.

For the proceeding, no — it is New York County like the rest of the neighbourhood. For valuation, yes. Battery Park City apartments are held subject to long-term ground leases rather than on ordinary fee title, and the remaining lease term and ground-rent structure affect what a unit is worth. That matters for the estate tax return and for a decision about whether to sell during administration. An appraisal that ignores the ground lease is not a usable appraisal.

Yes. Our Manhattan office is at 15 Maiden Lane, and consultations are also available by video or telephone. The Surrogate's Court is at 31 Chambers Street, about a ten-minute walk, which is convenient for filings but has no bearing on which court handles a matter — that is decided by the decedent's domicile, not by anyone's address.

Not in the ordinary way. The unlimited federal marital deduction is not available for a transfer to a non-citizen spouse, on the reasoning that the assets could leave the United States tax system. The usual mechanism for preserving the deferral is a qualified domestic trust, which must meet specific requirements as to trustees and withholding. This is a case where a standard will drafted without knowing the spouse's citizenship produces a materially worse result, and where the fix is straightforward if it is done in advance.

Joint ownership with rights of survivorship passes the property to the survivor outside the will, so for that first death it does avoid a proceeding. It does not avoid estate tax, it does nothing for the second death, and it can produce results nobody intended — the survivor may leave the property to whomever they choose regardless of what the first spouse assumed, and adding a child as joint owner during life exposes the property to that child's creditors and divorce. It is a convenience, not a plan.

It follows the primary proceeding rather than running alongside it, because New York generally wants to see the will admitted and the fiduciary appointed where the decedent was domiciled before granting ancillary letters here. In practice that means the New York step begins after the home-state step is under way, and a sale of the apartment waits on New York letters. Where speed matters — a market-sensitive sale, or a family that needs the proceeds — that sequencing is the argument for holding the apartment in a trust instead.