Book excerpt: Wills, Trusts, and Estates: Essential Tools for the New York Paralegal provides students everything they need to handle an estate from beginning to end, including basic terminology, intestate administration, probate proceedings, litigation, jurisdiction and venue, fiduciary duties and responsibilities, trusts, and tax considerations. This complete text focuses specifically on New York practice and eliminates the need for other supplements. Enhanced by the author's extensive practice experience and her realistic examples, this text provides: State-specific rules, forms, and reference sources, including a complete appendix of forms In-depth instruction in paralegal tasks and skills at each stage of administration, estate planning, and litigation Paralegal resources such as software, books, websites, and other tools for the New York paralegal in the final chapter A separate chapter devoted to the ethical issues paralegals encounter Case synopses and chapter pedagogy that help students understand, practice, and retain material. Pedagogy includes charts and diagrams, key terms, ethical points, topic sidebars, highlighted examples, and review exercises. Current decisions that highlight points of law and statutory applications, thereby bringing a sense of reality to the material New to the Third Edition: Case law has been updated throughout Discussions of new statutes have been added A timely new section on the status of same-sex spouses in New York has been added Written specifically with students in mind by an experienced practitioner, Wills, Trusts, and Estates: Essential Tools for the New York Paralegal, Third Edition, offers all of the tools students need to deal with administration, estate planning, and litigation in the real world.