Do I Need a Trust in New York? Brooklyn Living & Medicaid Trusts

A trust is a legal arrangement where a person (the grantor) transfers assets to a trustee to hold and manage for beneficiaries under written terms. In New York, the core reason Brooklyn families use trusts is to keep property — especially an appreciated brownstone or condo — out of the Kings County Surrogate’s Court, preserve privacy, and in some cases protect a home from nursing-home costs through Medicaid planning.

Grantor — the person who creates and funds the trust. Trustee — the person or entity that manages trust assets. Beneficiary — the person who benefits from the trust. Corpus — the property held inside the trust.

Revocable living trust vs. will

Feature	Will	Revocable Living Trust
Goes through probate?	Yes (Kings County Surrogate’s Court)	No, for assets titled in the trust
Public record?	Yes — filed wills are public	No — stays private
Effective when?	Only at death	During life and after death
Manages incapacity?	No	Yes — successor trustee steps in
Can be changed?	Yes, while competent	Yes, while competent
Up-front cost/effort	Lower	Higher (drafting + funding)

For a Park Slope homeowner who wants their family to avoid a public, months-long probate of a $2 million townhouse, the revocable living trust is often the centerpiece of the plan. See how that probate would otherwise unfold in the Brooklyn probate process.

Irrevocable trusts and Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts

An irrevocable trust cannot be freely changed once created — and that rigidity is the point. By giving up control, the grantor can shield assets from estate tax or from being counted for Medicaid long-term-care eligibility.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) transfers a home into an irrevocable trust so that, after New York’s five-year lookback period, the home is no longer a countable resource for nursing-home Medicaid. For a Bay Ridge or Bensonhurst family whose primary wealth is the house, a MAPT created early can preserve that home for the next generation. Timing is everything — transfers within five years can trigger a penalty period.

Year-dependent rules: Medicaid figures and lookback mechanics change. Verify current-year details before relying on them.

New York trust types

Trust type	Revocable?	Common Brooklyn use
Revocable living trust	Yes	Probate avoidance, incapacity planning
Irrevocable trust	No	Estate-tax reduction, asset protection
Medicaid Asset Protection Trust	No	Shield the home from long-term-care costs
Supplemental (special) needs trust (EPTL 7-1.12)	Varies	Provide for a disabled beneficiary without losing benefits
Testamentary trust	Created by will	Stagger inheritances for minor children

A supplemental needs trust under EPTL 7-1.12 lets a Brooklyn family support a disabled child or sibling while preserving means-tested benefits like SSI and Medicaid.

Why funding a trust is the step people skip

A trust controls only what you put into it. An unfunded trust — one where you never re-titled the house, the accounts, or the co-op shares into the trustee’s name — does nothing, and the assets still go through probate. Funding a Brooklyn home means recording a new deed; funding co-op shares means working with the co-op’s transfer agent and board. This administrative follow-through is where DIY trusts most often fail.

Trustee duties under New York law

A New York trustee is a fiduciary held to the prudent investor standard of EPTL 11-2.3 — they must manage trust assets with care, diversify appropriately, act impartially among beneficiaries, and keep records. Choosing a capable, trustworthy trustee matters as much as the trust document itself.

Why trusts hit differently in Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s housing stock makes the probate-avoidance math concrete. A multi-family townhouse in Brooklyn Heights or a co-op in Flatbush is frequently the largest asset a family owns, and it is exactly the kind of asset that turns probate into a public, contested, drawn-out matter — especially where multiple children or out-of-state relatives are involved. Co-op shares add a wrinkle: because you own shares plus a proprietary lease rather than real property, transferring them at death means dealing with a co-op board, and EPTL 7-1.12 confirms a trust may hold those shares. A properly funded trust sidesteps much of this friction.

FAQ

Do I need a trust if I already have a will? Often yes — a will still requires probate, while a funded living trust avoids it. They work together, not as substitutes.

Does a revocable trust protect my Brooklyn home from Medicaid? No. Only an irrevocable trust, properly set up beyond the five-year lookback, offers Medicaid protection.

Can a trust hold my Brooklyn co-op shares? Yes. Under EPTL 7-1.12 a trust can hold co-op shares, though the co-op board’s transfer process still applies.

Is a trust expensive to maintain in New York? A revocable trust generally has low ongoing cost; the real work is the up-front funding of your home and accounts.

Talk to an attorney

To decide whether a revocable, irrevocable, or Medicaid trust fits your Brooklyn estate, book a 30-minute consultation with Russel Morgan: calendly.com/russel-morgan/30min. You may also want to review wills and estate taxes first.